HANOI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Floods in central and southern Vietnam have killed 38 people, an official report said on Tuesday, while the north-south rail link has been restored after a fatal derailment last week.

The Central Vietnam Anti-Flood Committee said in a report that 30 people had been killed by late Monday by floods in four central coastal provinces -- Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa -- and that the rains had weakened.

They included a train driver who died when the locomotive and three coaches of a North-South express derailed last Friday in Khanh Hoa province. All 140 passengers were unhurt.

The link was restored on Monday, Tuesday's Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper reported.

Official news reports have previously said eight people drowned last week in floods in the southern provinces of Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan.

Lao Dong said 25,000 people were in need of emergency food supplies in Ninh Thuan where floods had inundated more than 6,500 homes.

The floods were caused by torrential rains that fell from Thursday until Saturday, raising river water levels.

The anti-flood committee's report said water levels in several rivers in Quang Binh and Thua Thien Hue provinces were rising slowly, while those in provinces closer to the south had receded.

Vietnam is hit by serious floods and storms in the latter part of every year.

Hundreds of people have died in floods this year, many of then in the southern Mekong Delta, which suffered its worst floods in decades. More than 300 of the dead were children.

Catastrophic flash floods in central Vietnam last November and December killed 730 people.

On Monday, Lao Dong quoted a senior meteorologist as saying the central region was forecast to face no major floods between now and the end of the year as seasonal winds had arrived earlier than usual.