China will continue rare earth exports and regulate export quotas according to World Trade Organization rules, the Ministry of Commerce said yesterday.

China announced its first batch of 2011 rare earth export quotas at 14,446 tons at the end of 2010.

The full-year quotas are under discussion and will be announced at the right time, Yao Jian, a ministry spokesman, said at a news briefing.

The country exported 35,000 tons of rare earths from January to November 2010, up 14.5 percent from a year earlier. Exports to Japan, the European Union and the United States accounted for 86 percent of the total, Yao said.