Nearly 270 people have been killed in heavy monsoon rains, floods and mudslides since July that have battered 30 of Thailand's 77 provinces, authorities said.

About 3.4 million acres (1.38 million hectares) of farm land is under water -- about 13 times the size of Hong Kong. More than 700,000 homes have been destroyed or damaged.

In the hard-hit central province of Ayutthaya, 198 factories in a big industrial estate, including an assembly plant of Honda Motor Co Ltd, closed after flood waters breached a wall of sandbags at the weekend.

"There will certainly be some impact on production due to the flooding in Ayutthaya," Ammar Master, a senior market analyst at the Asian unit of J.D. Power and Associates, a California-

Industry Minister Wannarat Channukul estimated the initial cost of damage had reached more than 20 billion baht (412 million pounds) in Ayutthaya province alone.

Reuters