"We should be vigilant for a comparatively big flood on the Yangtze," she was quoted as saying.

Vast amounts of snow have melted on the Qinghai-Tibet plateau, where the Yangtze originates, the paper said, attributing the unusually warm winter to El Nino, the abnormal warming of surface ocean waters in the eastern Pacific.

Some Chinese officials have also previously linked this year's high winter temperatures to man-made global warming.

The United Nations' top panel on climate change warned in a landmark report in April that the Himalayan glaciers were under grave threat from global warming.

The China Meteorological Administration has forecast heavy rainfall and typhoons this summer, mainly in the southern part of the country, especially affecting the lower reaches of the Yangtze, the China Daily said.

Heavy floods could be potentially disastrous as populous cities such as Nanjing, Wuhan and Chongqing are situated along the river, according to the paper.

A rising Yangtze could also put the enormous dam across the river in the Three Gorges area to the test, the paper quoted Cai as saying.

Altogether 28,000 people still live in areas near the dam's reservoir that could be flooded if the water storage level hits the maximum of 175 metres (580 feet), Cai said, urging local governments to evacuate them in time.

State media earlier this month warned that China this year faced its greatest threat in a decade from typhoons, floods, droughts and other extreme weather caused by climate change.

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