Chinese Vice Premier Hui Liangyu called for more efforts Friday to plant trees nationwide in a bid to cope with climate change and improve the environment.

Hui, also head of the National Afforestation Committee (NAC), stressed the importance of tree planting in promoting a conservation culture and pursuing scientific development at a meeting held by the NAC in Beijing.

China planted 88.27 million mu (5.88 million hectares) of trees last year, meeting a government target of raising the forest coverage rate to 20 percent a year ahead of schedule, Hui said.

The government set the target at the 2007 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting.

He said the country faced more afforestation tasks this year as the central government wanted the national forest area to rise by 40 million hectares by 2020 from 2005 levels.

China would plant 88.8 million mu of trees this year, he said.

Hui urged local governments to take measures to prevent forest fires despite difficulties caused by the lingering drought in southwest China.

China's forest acreage totaled 195 million hectares by the end of 2008, according to a survey carried out by the State Forestry Administration.