China's social assistance network will be expanded nationwide to cover the poorest people in both the country's urban and rural areas by 2010, according to a senior official in Beijing on Thursday.

China's Vice Premier Hui Liangyu said at a national conference on civil affairs that priority will be given to setting up a long-term basic living allowance system for the rural poor.

The current assistance system must be extended and improved to benefit China's neediest population, according to Hui.

The social assistance system under construction aims to not only guarantee people's subsistence but also provide medicare, children's education and housing, said Tang Jun, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

China's social assistance system includes a national system of subsistence allowances; the "Five Guarantees" household subsistence program, by which infirm and childless old people enjoy government support for food, clothing, medical care, housing and burial expenses; the destitute household allowance aimed at poverty-stricken families with annual income of less than 625 yuan(78 U.S. dollars); a cooperative medicare assistance program; and a temporary assistance program to help families hit by sudden disease or natural disasters.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, a total of 7.765 million villagers in 1,534 counties and cities had benefited from the system by 2005, an improvement on the 1,206 counties and cities aided in 2004.

Eighteen provinces, municipalities and regions have already setup the subsistence allowance system while another 13 provincial-level regions have adopted a similar system to help poor families, Tang said.

Editor: Donald