Many of the couples are motivated by the chance to get around China's one-child policy, Britain's Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.

'I think if two kids grow up together, then they can help each other and they will be more rounded people. My neighbour has two children and I can see that her children are more considerate and nicer to their parents, unlike my only son who is really spoilt,' said Mrs Li, an accountant from Huai'an in eastern Jiangsu province.

Like many couples, Mrs Li and her civil servant husband would like to adopt a girl to be a sister to their nine-year-old son.

'I already have a boy, a really naughty one,' she told the Telegraph. 'It makes a nice balance to have a boy and a girl.'

Her son, too, is looking forward to having a sister.

'I've spoken to him about it,' she said. 'He was happy...I can feel that he will be more responsible when he is an older brother.'

But Mrs Li faces stiff competition. The Chaoyang district branch of the Beijing Civil Affairs Department, just one of 16 such offices in the Chinese capital, said that more than 1,000 couples hoping to adopt a Sichuan orphan had already registered with the office.

Phone lines to the Sichuan Civil Affairs Department in Chengdu, which handles adoptions in the region, have been jammed soon after the quake, London's Telegraph newspaper said.

There has been a widespread outpouring of grief and sympathy for some 5,500 children whose parents are dead or missing.

With the death toll from the quake rising to 69,016 as of noon yesterday, and 18,830 people still missing, the number of children left on their own is expected to rise.

There are signs that Beijing will suspend its rigid rules on adoption for the Sichuan orphans, the Telegraph reported.

The Population and Family Planning Commission in Chengdu has already said that it will allow childless couples who adopt a quake orphan to have a child of their own in the future. Parents whose only child was severely injured will also be allowed to have another one.

However, many experts question if those wishing to adopt can cope with children who have been traumatised by the loss of their parents.

While most children can recover, a small percentage will need help, said Mr Dale Rutstein, a spokesman for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).

Despite the despair of the quake victims, teachers and volunteers said it was still appropriate to celebrate Children's Day, which is celebrated on June 1 in China.

The quake left almost 7,000 schools destroyed, wiping out entire classes in some cases. More than 11,000 pupils and teachers are among the people reported dead or missing.

Officials in Beichuan tried to add some cheer by having a 'tent kindergarten' for students from the quake-devastated county. Children scampered among balloons and attended mass calisthenics sessions.

'I am very happy here, mainly because we have a lot of nice teachers,' said nine-year-old Wang Meili. 'But I want to go back to my school.'

At another commemoration of Children's Day, some 200 parents and relatives of pupils killed in the quake gathered on the rubble-strewn grounds of what used to be a primary school.

Angry and tearful, they wore white T-shirts with the name of the school - Xinjian Primary - on the front and, in huge red characters on the back, the slogan 'Severely Punish Corrupt Tofu Dregs Construction' - a reference to the remnants left when making beancurd, a common Chinese term for shoddy workmanship and poor materials.

'Our beloved children, we wish you a happy Children's Day in the next world,' said a woman teacher leading the ceremony.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE

'My neighbour has two children and I can see that her children are more considerate and nicer to their parents, unlike my only son who is really spoilt.'
MRS LI, an accountant from Huai'an in Jiangsu province, who is keen to adopt a girl orphaned by the Sichuan quake