BEIJING, Dec. 27 (Xinhua) -- China would take measures to stabilize the soaring house prices and crack down on speculation, Premier Wen Jiabao said in an exclusive interview with Xinhua Sunday.

    House prices in 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities rose 5.7 percent year-on-year in November, continuing an escalation that has triggered new concerns over property speculation in the country.

    The rise, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than the jump in October, made November the ninth straight month that house prices rose in the survey of real estate across major Chinese cities.

    The drastic increase in house prices continued despite the efforts of the Central Economic Work Conference earlier this month which tried to pour cold water on China's sizzling property market.

    Analysts attributed the rapidly rising house prices to growing demands for residential properties, speculative deals and easy credit.

    Statistics from Goldman Sachs showed that over the past six years, the housing price hikes had outpaced income rises by 30 percentage points in Shanghai and 80 percentage points in Beijing.

    In Beijing, the housing price of per square meter is as much as a resident's seven months' salary on average.

    The sharp increase of residential property prices has prompted fears that a property bubble was forming. China's central government is taking measures to deflate the bubble.

    An executive meeting of the State Council this month, chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao, said the country would increase supply of smaller houses at medium-and-low price levels, continue to support residential consumption for improved housing while curbing speculation for the healthy development of the real estate sector.

    Analysts said whether China can curb the ongoing house price hike depended on the implementation of the government's policies.