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`Quake toll only 222'

TEHERAN JUNE 23. The Red Crescent of Iran today revised down the number of dead in a powerful earthquake in northern Iran to 222 from an earlier estimate of 500 as rescuers picked through rubble to find any remaining survivors.

``There was a mistake, the previous number was the number of dead and injured together,'' the State television quoted a Red Crescent official as saying.

More than 5,000 houses had been destroyed and 25,000 people made homeless, with at least four strong aftershocks inflicting more damage, official sources said.

The Red Crescent said relief workers, food, more than 1,000 tents, 2,500 blankets and mobile kitchens had been dispatched to the stricken area.

Extra ambulances had been sent, while the army was supplying water trucks.

Meanwhile, the U.S. President, George W. Bush, who said he was saddened by the news of the earthquake, extended an offer of humanitarian aid to Iran.

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