?A major general said yesterday that China has no intention of large-scale military expansion, even though its military spending has grown in recent years.

"Along with its economic growth, China has increased national defense spending in recent years, but this has mainly been to improve the living conditions of military officers and soldiers," said Ding Jiye, also head of the finance office of the General Logistics Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said in Singapore on June 4 that he could not understand why China increased its military expenditure when it was under no threat from other countries.

Reiterating the remarks on Tuesday of a foreign ministry spokesperson, Ding told Xinhua News Agency that China had neither the intention nor the capability to carry out a large-scale military expansion.

China set a 244.7 billion yuan (US$29.48 billion) budget for national defense in 2005, up 12.6 percent on 2004.

"A large part of the increase has gone on raising wages, improving clothing and raising subsidies. It is necessary if only the price rise factor is taken into account," said Ding.

As civilians benefit from economic growth, living conditions of military personnel should also be improved, he added.

The funds have also been used for organizational reform, which has included cutting the number of military personnel and employing civil servants. A reduction of 200,000 military personnel was part of the 10th Five-Year Plan period (2001-2005).

"Extra expenses are needed to cover arrangements for both retired and newly employed personnel," Ding said.

He said moderate increases in weapons spending have gone towards keeping up with global accelerated military developments, and research, new equipment and training all require money to modernize the military, enhance mechanization and create a better information infrastructure.

Ding said despite the growth in military spending in recent years, China's national defense expenditure remained far behind other major countries in the world in many areas, including aggregate amount, ratio in GDP and per capita military spending.

The foreign ministry said at its regular press conference on Tuesday that last year, US military spending was US$ 455.9 billion, 17.8 times that of China. In terms of per capita military spending, the US figure is 77 times that of China.

"Any words or deeds that create and exaggerate China's military threat will do harm to regional peace and stability," said ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2005)