Kiev/Chisinau  - The known death toll from some of the worst flooding in a century in the Ukraine and Moldova rose to 22 as the two countries battled on Monday to control the damage.

Ukrainian television showed images of rivers overflowing embankments, and two critical hydroelectric dams under threat of collapse due to still-rising waters.

Close to 20,000 persons were temporarily homeless, having been evacuated from the hardest-hit areas concentrated along the Dniestr River flood plain, and the Carpathian Mountain section of Ukraine, officials from the Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) said.

More than 40,000 houses and residences, almost all in the West of the country, were uninhabitable due to flooding, Korrespondent magazine reported.

Hundreds of villagers required emergency evacuation by boat and even helicopter as those who initially refused to leave their homes were trapped by rising waters, according to an MES statement.

The unprecedented high waters inundated more than 330 square kilometres of farmland, damaged 360 automobiles and 561 bridges, and destroyed some 680 kilometres of road, according a Ukraine government count.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko in a Sunday evening national television address estimated the value of the flooding damage in the epicentre Ivano-Frankivsk province at 340 million dollars, and the cost of repairing the damage to all seven provinces hit by the flooding was "near two billion dollars."

A grave Yushchenko in rolled-up trousers was shown on the national television channel UT-1 wading through knee-deep water, and talking with villagers in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

Channel 5 television aired images of grey flood waters covering entire village streets, and reaching to the eaves of some buildings.

There was practically no vehicle movement in the worst-flooded areas of the town, aside from villagers herding cattle and sheep to higher ground, and persons moving by tractor or small boat.

Though rains had stopped, continued run-off from the mountains was so far preventing a fall of water levels, officials said.

Ukraine's national security council was scheduled to hold an emergency meeting Monday afternoon.

The country's fractious parliament - frequently unable to assemble a quorum during normal sessions - was planning to cancel vacation and vote on amendments to the national budget allowing addition funding to be sent to the flooded regions.

Yushchenko on Sunday declared the flooding a national disaster area, but he and other Ukrainian officials were quick to say government funds would be insufficient, without amendments by parliament to the government budget. (dpa)