The Chinese Central Government will increase its poverty-relief fund by one billion yuan this year to meet its goal of wiping out rural poverty by the end of 2000, an official with the State Council's leading aid-the-poor group said on February 1.

The fund, added to the planned investment for the year, will put the Central Government's total spending on poverty elimination at nearly 26 billion yuan (about 3.2 billion US dollars).

The added money will go to relocating poor farmers and the poverty-relief efforts in remote areas as well as in regions inhabited by ethnic minorities, he said.

China launched an ambitious plan in 1994 to help its then 80 million needy farmers out of poverty by the end of 2000; since then, 46 million poor farmers have been helped to better lives.

To hit the target, China has to provide adequate food and clothing for another 10 million needy farmers by the end of the year.

"The task is extremely difficult," the official said, "as most of the remaining poor farmers live in remote regions and outlying mountainous areas."

To raise more funding for poverty relief, the Central Government has asked local governments to allocate funds equivalent to at least 30 percent of the state input.

Latest statistics indicate that last year's spending by local governments on poverty relief rose by 1.78 billion yuan, up 20 percent over the previous year.

To ensure the efficiency of the poverty-relief fund distribution, the government will stick to the principle of targeting individual villages and families, supporting them to improve basic production conditions and investing in projects that meet market demand.