Chinese family planning officials worried about possible baby boom as a latest survey showed mothers' increasing desire to have more than one kid.

In a survey conducted by the National Population and Family Planning Commission, about 70.7 percent of women would like to have two or more babies, Friday's China Daily quoted Jiang Fan, vice-minister of the commission, as saying.

"The figure rose 7.6 percentage points between 2001 and 2006, which indicates a possible baby boom," he said.

The survey was conducted in 2006 but released Thursday.

About 83 percent of the surveyed women want a son and a daughter, Jiang said.

Some mothers worried that their only-children suffer from loneliness and can become spoiled, he added.

China currently allows couples who are both only-child to have two children of their own. The same applies to ethnic minority couples

The country introduced the family planning policy in the late 1970s under the heavy pressure of a soaring population, from 542 million to 963 million between 1949 and 1978.

By the end of 2007, China's total population increased to 1.32 billion and the authorities aimed to keep it within 1.36 billion by the end of 2010.

Thanks to well implementation of one child policy, the country managed to reduce the population growth rate from 1.2 percent in 1978 to 0.52 in 2007.

But prolonged life span, attributed to a booming economy and better livelihood, and people's desire to have more kids added much pressure to control the population growth.

Li Bin, minister of the commission, said at a meeting Thursday that authorities would stick to the existing family planning policies and try to maintain a low birth rate.

"China's family planning policy underpins the country's economy and demographics," she said.

(China Daily January 16, 2009)