A senior government official has called for showing care and love towards unattended rural children whose parents have left their hometown to work in other parts of the country to support the family.

"Do something substantial, better and useful for these unattended children, so that they can grow up in health in the warm arms of the big, socialist family," said State Councilor Hua Jianmin in a message to a national conference held in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province from December 2 to December 3.

Premier Wen Jiabao visits children of rural migrant workers in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, May 26, 2007 (file photo)

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League (CCYL) and the National Committee for the Work of Children sponsored the meeting to increase public awareness about the issue of unattended children in the countryside.

The conference is good for promoting public concerns over the issue, the healthy development of the underaged, and the building of a harmonious socialist society, said Hua.

The Healthy development of unattended rural children has a bearing on the interests of rural people, on the building of the socialist new countryside, social harmony and stability, and the future of the nation, the official said.

Hua called for joint efforts from the Communist Party of China (CPC), the government, the CCYL and other organizations to help the unattended rural children.

The CCYL has launched "a hand-in-hand" program to set up partnership between attended and unattended children in the countryside, and between urban children and unattended rural children.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2007)