China will adhere to the family planning policy so as to keep the low birth rate, according to a senior Chinese official.

Addressing a recent national population conference, Hua Jianmin, State Councilor and Secretary-General of the State Council, said that the family planning policy launched at the end of the 1970s has successfully pulled back China's runaway population growth in rein.

The one-child policy has helped cut down the country's population by over 300 million people and postpone the arrival of 1.3-billion population by four years, he said.

"The policy has contributed to the improvement of the nation's comprehensive power, social progress and enhancement of the people's living standard," Hua said.

But he pointed out that the large population will remain a knotty problem in the new century and the increasingly tense conflict between population and environment will pose severe challenges to sustainable development.

He urged local authorities to increase financial input in the family planning work and expand the mechanism of rewarding one-child families in rural areas.

Meanwhile, he noted that efforts should also be devoted to improve the comprehensive qualities of the people, in addition to the control of population growth.

Measures should be taken to curb gender imbalance and birth defects. The government should also step up improving the social insurance system to catch up with the country's fastened pace into an aging society, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11, 2005)