JINAN, Sept. 16 (Xinhuanet) - China's population and family planning minister said on Friday China's low birth rate is not stable, which requires a comprehensive approach towards the population issue and continued implementation of the family planning policy.

    Statistics from the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) show that China's population grew at 5.87 per thousand in 2004, 1.71 per thousand lower than 2000. The average number of children per couple dropped to 1.8 from 5.8 in the early 1970s, placing China in the world's low-birth-rate club.

    "But China's low birth rate is unstable," said Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of NPFPC, at the national population and family planning new mechanism construction meeting held in eastern China's Shandong province.

    He said the general public's birth expectation are quite different from the requirement of the state family planning policy given China's low social productivity and not-so-sound social security network.

    Moreover, many people fail to fully understand that keeping a low birth level is an arduous and long-term task for China, which is expected to see peak period for working-age and elderly groups as well as an expanding floating population by the middle of this century.

    He stressed that China should stick to its family planning policy and work hard to improve the new mechanism featuring "management according to law, self-governance of villagers or residents, quality services, policy impetus and comprehensive management" to achieve a coordinated development between population and socioeconomic growth. Enditem