BEIJING, Aug. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- China will tighten control over the exports of fossils and a regulation will be formulated to this end, according to the Ministry of Land and Resources.

　　"The ministry and the General Administration of Customs will jointly produce a special regulation on fossil exports, the first of its kind in China, before the end of September," said Jiang Jianjun, director of the ministry's geological environment department.

　　Jiang was quoted by Thursday's China Daily as saying that the export of fossils would only be allowed with the approval of government departments, and the approvals would not be hard to get.

　　According to Jiang, China has improved its management of fossils in the past five years, adopting its first national regulation for their protection and establishing 30 fossil preservation zones.

　　However, various reports contend many valuable animal fossils have been, and are still being, smuggled out of China, though no accurate figures are available. They include dinosaur egg fossils found in northeast China's Liaoning Province and dinosaur fossils found in southwest China's Guizhou Province.

　　It was really hard to forbid illegal transactions of fossils promptly and effectively as there were no clear-cut operational standards to distinguish valuable fossils from those not so precious, said Jiang.

　　"We should try our best to keep as many of these fossils in ourcountry as possible until more effective measures are found," Jiang added. Enditem