China is hoping to provide more rural migrant workers with work-injury insurance, the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MOLSS) said on Tuesday.

Hu Xiaoyi, MOLSS's vice minister, China aims to have 140 million people covered by work-related injury insurance by 2010.

"Migrant rural workers are the main target of the expansion of China's work-related injury insurance package," Hu said at a national meeting on social security.

By the end of July 2006, more than 90 million people benefit from the insurance nationwide with 18.71 million being migrant workers from the countryside, figures from the Ministry show.

The number of migrant rural workers covered by the insurance has increased nearly 6.2 million since 2005.

At present, 88 of the 94 key state-owned coal mines in China have adopted the work-injury insurance system, Hu said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 6, 2006)