Wang Changshun, the deputy director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), said Beijing aimed for an accident rate of below 0.3 per million flight hours, a comparable rate to that in developed countries.

"With the rapid increase of the air transport volume and the fast expanding airplane fleets, we are facing more and more pressure and difficulty to ensure flight safety," he told a meeting Friday in the south of the country.

He said China had to overcome problems such as the lack of competent human resources, poor airport facilities, congested airspace and an incomplete legal framework.

Wang also blamed China's underdeveloped strength in aeronautics, saying it stunted the civil aviation industry and affected flight safety.

"Developed countries usually set civil aviation safety policies based on the technological support they have, while we mainly rely on our experience and promote that under administrative order," Wang added.

"We introduce not only most of our civil planes from abroad, but also most of the new techniques."

The CAAC in May announced the creation of an air safety institute to train 10,000 staff over the next five years.

Wang estimated that China would need 11,000 more pilots by 2010 and 18,000 by 2015.

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