Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan on Thursday vowed to reform the current coal industry by establishing large coal groups with better safety equipment, instead of scattered small shafts with poor safety standards.

Zeng gave his speech at a national meeting held here to improve the country's coal industry, which is enjoying a high-speed production growth while suffering rampant gas blasts.

"We should establish some large coal bases which have good cooperation with transportation systems and power plants," said Zeng. He also called for more investment in upgrading the coal mine equipment to save resource and avoid accidents.

He said Chinese coal industry should abandon the outdated mining method resulting in huge resource waste and heavy environmental protection, and those small mines with poor safety standard must be closed.

Coal-rich areas should strengthen the research on recycling technology to keep the balance between resource utilization and environmental protection, said Zeng.

China should speed up the reform of its complicated coal industry by transforming state-owned enterprises into standard stockholding companies. Redundant construction with low-standard production and safety capacity should be avoided, according to Zeng.

"During the reform, the immediate interests of workers must be protected in line with the policies issued by the central government, " said Zeng.

As the world largest coal producer and consumer, China's coal consumption is expected to increase by six percent this year to 2.1 billion tons, according to the China Coal Industry Association.

(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2005)