The price of China's urban land is expected to rise steadily in 2004, according to a report released by the Ministry of Land and Resources on Monday.

Since China's GDP is forecast to grow 7 percent this year, urbanization will accelerate and real estate investment and demand will surge, the report says.

The government will strictly control land supplies this year, and the transformation of farmland into construction sites will be restrained, the report says.

Land price rises in major cities will accord with local economic development and should not go up by large margins this year.

In 2003, the average land price rose 8.8 percent on the Yangtze River Delta, whose GDP grew over 11 percent. Land prices edged up 1.8 percent on the Zhujiang River Delta, whose GDP grew over 14 percent in the year.

The increase in China's land prices is rational and the stable level effectively prevents bubbles in the real estate industry, the report says.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2004)