China's abject poverty population has been reduced by more than 100 million in the 20-year period from 1985 to 2005, thanks to the country's poverty alleviation efforts, a senior poverty relief official said on Tuesday.

At the end of last year, China had 23.65 million needy people whose per capita annual income is less than US$85, a poverty line set by the government. Eighty-five U.S. dollars is just 20 percent of the average annual income of the country's rural population, said Liu Jian, director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

China had 125 million people in abject poverty with per capita annual income below 85 U.S. dollars in 1985. But now the country has 40.67 million people whose annual income is less than 944 yuan (US$118).

The Chinese government has made huge efforts to reduce poverty and improve the living standards of the people. Departments have been established to push forward poverty reduction across the country since the mid-1980s.

The central government allocated 13.4 billion yuan (US$1.675 billion) to poverty reduction in 2006 alone and the amount will increase in the future, Liu said.

According to the latest figures from Liu's office, in the 592 poverty-stricken counties to which the central government has provided priority poverty reduction support, 79 percent of local villages have been linked up with the outside by highways, 95.8 percent have been given access to electricity and 70 percent of local villages had access to safe drinking water by the end of last year.

Moreover, 73.8 percent of local villages have installed fixed telephones and 87.6 percent of local villages have access to TV programs.

Currently, 94.7 percent of school age children in the 592 counties are studying at school and local people enjoy better, more convenient medical services, according to Liu's office.

Although China's rural poverty-relief program is going smoothly, serious challenges remain in poverty alleviation work, said Wu Zhong, head of the International Cooperation and Social Poverty Relief Department of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development.

If the international "a-dollar-per-day" income standard is used, China's needy population numbers more than 100 million, Wu told an international symposium on anti-population and international cooperation, held in Chengdu, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

More than half of the poverty-stricken population in China live in mountainous areas.

Liu said the central government would continue to play a key role in poverty reduction and in improving the living standards of low-income people.

More highways and drinking water facilities would be built in rural areas, Liu said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 23, 2006)