YINGXIU, China — Rescuers rushed to reach 24 coal miners trapped underground by China's' earthquake almost two weeks ago, officials said Saturday, as the government sharply raised the quake's death toll, warning it could exceed 80,000.

It was not known if the miners were dead or alive, but authorities were hoping for the best until they learned otherwise, said Wang Dexue, deputy chief of the government's work safety department.

"We have had the miracle in the past that a miner was found alive after being trapped underground for 21 days," Wang told a news conference in Beijing. "We are carrying out rescue work on the assumption that they are still alive. We absolutely will not give up."

The 24 miners were trapped in three mines in Sichuan province, Wang said, without giving further details. Sichuan bore the brunt of the quake on May 12 that has caused China's greatest disaster in three decades.

Premier Wen Jiabao returned to the quake zone on Saturday, and hosted U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a visit to one of the hardest-hit towns.

The State Council, China's Cabinet, said the latest confirmed death toll for the quake was 60,560 and listed 26,221 people as still missing.

Wen warned the toll could go much higher, suggesting the government may be giving up hope of finding alive those who are missing.

"It may further climb to a level of 70,000, 80,000 or more," Wen told reporters in the badly damaged town of Yingxiu near the epicenter of the disaster.

Ban, who came to China directly from another Asian disaster zone — cyclone-stricken Myanmar — promised that the United Nations would help with reconstruction and was waiting for China's assessment of what it needed.