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China to relax

one-child

policy

BEIJING: China is to relax its stringent one-child policy and allow an estimated 60 million people to have more than one child, a minister said on Monday.

In a press conference Zhang Yuqin, vice minister for family planning, said people who were born in single child families would themselves be allowed to have up to two children under new rules which were actually introduced in the summer, but largely kept under wraps.

"The critical period will be around 2005 when a large number of only children, born in the "80s, will reach reproductive age," she said.

"We carried out a survey of young, single, people most of whom said they would not want several children," the minister said.

Most people have been unaware of the new regulation.

Zhang refused to estimate by how much the population figures would be affected by the new official stance.

Since the 1980s China has enforced a tough one child policy with fines and forced sterilisations for those who broke the law.

Its population growth dropped to 0.9 percent last year from 2.6 percent in the late 1970s, but the total is still expected to hit 1.3 billion by the end of this year and 1.4 billion in 2010 before levelling out at between 1.5 billion and 1.6 billion.

In 19 other provinces couples can have a second child if the first is a girl, while in areas where ethnic minorities live the regulations very from place to place with couples allowed anywhere from two, four or as many children as they want, as in Tibet, Jiang said.

Couples that breach these relaxed rules still have to pay fines.ÑAFP