China plans to bring its growing land desertification under control by 2010 through massive restoration of vegetation across the country, an official of the Desertification Prevention Center of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said Saturday.

Deputy director of the center, Luo Bing, said China has launched three major programs to curb desertification, one of the most serious environmental problems facing the increasingly sandy country.

Luo made the remarks at a seminar held on the sidelines of a national agricultural technological fair, in Xi'an, capital of Shaanxi Province in northwest China.

Earlier, SFA Director Zhou Shengxian said a total of 1.743 million square kilometers of land, or 18.2 percent of China's total land area, has become seriously degraded and sandy, and it is expanding by 3,436 square kilometers per year.

Luo said the three major programs are the fourth-phase construction of a lengthy windbreak across northern China, afforestation programs along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, the country's two longest, and projects in China's wet south.

China has earmarked billions of dollars for the projects so far.

The total size of sandy land in China is expected to decrease as a result of the nationwide effort to curb desertification, Luo said, adding that by 2050, all of the seriously degraded and sandyareas suitable for restoration will be harnessed if technology andfunding allow.

( November 10, 2002)