BEIJING, March 21 (Xinhua) -- China's population, growing by 8 million a year, is expected to reach its peak by mid 2030s, China's top family planning official said on Tuesday.

    Speaking at an online interview carried on the central government's website, Zhang Weiqing, minister in charge of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said China's population will probably stop growing in about 30 years."

    China will unswervingly implement the family planning policy, Zhang said.

    China's population reached 1.306 billion as of Nov. 1, 2005, up 3.2 percent in five years, according to statistics released from the National Bureau of Statistics last week.

    Some 16 million babies are born every year, while 8 million die,which means the population grows by 8 million annually, Zhang said.

    At present, there are 1.8 children for a Chinese couple on average, while the number of children for each couple came to six in early 1970s. Enditem