The police authority has complained it is short of manpower in the countryside, where disputes are reportedly more likely to turn violent.

The claim came on the heels of a police announcement that more than 30,000 new police stations had been set up in villages nationwide and nearly 70,000 police had been deployed to rural areas.

"Our major difficulty, at present, is the manpower shortage in the vast rural areas, where we consider to be in urgent need of police presence," said Bao Suixian, deputy head of the Public Security Management Bureau under the Ministry of Public Security, at a Tuesday press conference.

Bao said the ministry planned to establish police offices in each of the 700,000 villages in China, home to nearly 900 million people.

"To some extent, the country will be peaceful if the rural areas are tranquil and stable," he said.

But according to the latest police statistics, violent crimes were down in the first ten months of the year. Police investigated nearly 3.75 million crime cases, down 1.1 percent from last year, and solved 2.21 million of them.

Murder in the rural areas dropped 16.5 percent while rape was down 8.2 percent from January to October. But the police did not reveal the actual figures.

"A great number of disputes and unharmonious elements exist in China. In the face of such pressure, it is impossible to rely solely on the 1.8 million-strong police force to maintain stability. Police forces need more manpower," Bao said.

Police officials said the number of murders and assaults stemming from trivial disputes over marriage, family affairs or paying debts has been rising steadily in recent years. Such disputes accounted for the cause of nearly 36 percent of murders in the first ten months.

(Xinhua News Agency November 15, 2006)