With the death toll from flooding in and around Dire Dawa hovering at 206, they said frantic rescue efforts continued but conceded chances were slim of locating alive any of the more than 300 people still unaccounted for.

"We are expecting the death toll to increase," Berekat Simon, a senior aide to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told AFP in the capital.

"The army and police are out in force searching for bodies all along the river beds," said Kassim Ahmed, a resident of Dire Dawa, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) east of Addis Ababa.