The land suffering from desertification has been decreasing by 7,585 sq km annually, Zhu Lieke, deputy director of the State Forestry Administration, announced on Monday.

And the area of sandy land has also been falling by 1,284 sq km a year, said the Chinese forestry official at a news briefing convened for Beijing International Conference on Women and Desertification.

The shrinkage poses a stark contrast to the fact that the land suffering from desertification and sandy feature were added by 10,400 sq km and 3,436 sq km late last century, respectively.

Currently, the desertification land in China makes up 2.64 million sq km, accounting for 27.46 percent of the nation's territory, and its sandy land totals 1.74 million sq km, accounting for 18.1 percent of the country's total.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2006)