Chinese peasant (Photo/Xinhua)

President Xi Jinping said China must strive to make breakthroughs on coordinated development between urban and rural areas to enable farmers to participate in the country's development on an equal footing and share the fruits of economic growth.

The president was speaking during a collective study session of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee's Political Bureau on improving mechanisms and institutions for integrated development of urban and rural areas on Thursday afternoon.

The most difficult task for China in building a a moderately prosperous society in all respects lies in its vast rural areas, Xi said.

He urged beefing up efforts and investment to strive for "significant breakthroughs" in integrating development in urban and rural areas.

In recent years, China's rural areas have seen substantial improvements, with agriculture strengthened and social welfare and services improved. Significant progress has been made in adjusting and coordinating the relationship between urban and rural development, Xi said.

However, the problem of unbalanced development is still serious, Xi said.

Development of rural areas should be supported by more advanced urban areas. The target is to gradually let rural residents have equal basic rights and interests and the same public services as urban residents, balancing the income of rural and urban residents, optimizing the distribution of essential factors in urban and rural areas and integrating urban and rural industrial development, according to Xi.

China has the material and technical conditions to promote integrated urban and rural development, Xi said, and now is the time to let industry nurture agriculture and allow cities to contribute back to villages.