China has raised the defense budget to improve the benefits for soldiers and officers rather than buy advanced fighters, said a political advisor in Beijing on Thursday.

The increased sum in the budget can only afford several B-2 stealth bomber, said Zhao Qizheng, who is here attending the annual session of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body.

B-2 is a type of costly US fighter, which has been brought under the media spotlight after a recent crash accident. It is reported that each B-2 bomber cost about US$1.2 billion to build.

"We won't buy fighters, but will try to improve the benefits for soldiers and officers. There's not much money left for high-tech researches," said Zhao, also former head of the Information Office of the State Council.

Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the annual parliamentary session, revealed on Tuesday that China plans to increase its defense budget by 17.6 percent to 417.769 billion yuan in 2008.

The budget equals US$57.229 billion if converted at the exchange rate by the end of last year.

Liao Xilong, an NPC deputy and director of the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), told Xinhua that the defense budget is raised mainly to increase subsidies and food for soldiers and officers and improve input in oil purchase, considering the price hike.

Zhao called on the international community to view China's military spending impartially. "With a far-flung territory, China has invested insufficiently in national defense," he said.

He also pointed out that China's defense budget is transparent, but the United States remains opaque in military spending, with expenditures on nuclear research as well as Afghan and Iraqi wars not included in its budget.

The United States repeatedly fabricates its annual report on Chinese military power, which Chinese Foreign Ministry condemns as a distortion of facts.

(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2008)