SHANGHAI (Reuters) - More than 8,000 cargo ships and boats were stranded on a river connecting Zhejiang province to Shanghai, both in China's Yangtze Delta, the country's main economic hub, due to high water levels, state news agency Xinhua said yesterday.

The bottleneck on the waterway connecting Changxing, Huzhou in Zhejiang and Shanghai extended 40 km (25 miles), its worst in a decade, Xinhua said.

The 145-km (90-mile) river carries 80 percent of coal used for power generation in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shanghai, Xinhua said.

Typhoon Morakot earlier this month caused flooding on local rivers and lakes, pushing water levels on the river to a record high.