China has rebuffed the foreign countries' offers of sniffer dogs and rescue experts to help in its devastating earthquake relief operation.

Australian expertise was declined on Wednesday, and Japanese teams were forced to turn around at the airport.

Although China faces a race against time to find survivors buried under rubbles, it also rejected South Korean specialists.

China said on Tuesday that the conditions were "not yet ripe" to accept foreign rescue teams.

China has mobilized its own 100,000 military and police, with troops parachuting and speed boating into remote areas, while planes and helicopters air-dropped emergency supplies.

The official death toll from the 7.9-magnitude earthquake in Sichuan province has now reached about 15,000 with 40,000 missing.

JR/MMN