Mar¹.2 - China aims to double the year 2000 level of per capita GDP in the western region by 2010, concentrating on providing poor people with adequate food and clothing, a government official said on Thursday.

At present, more than 60 percent of China's poor people live in the western part of the country, said Du Ping, spokesman of the Office of the Leading Group for Western Region Development of the State Council.

There were 57 million people with annual per capita income below 958 yuan (about 126 U.S. dollars) in rural areas at the end of 2006, according to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics.

China's western region remains² behind other areas of the country in economic growth.

This part of China has consumed only three percent of the nation's total foreign direct investment, official figures show.

However, the growth rate in the western region has risen in recent years, said Du.

"Economic growth of the western region was 1.7 percentage points slower than the national average between 2001 and 2005, but the gap decreased to 0.6 percentage points last year," he said.

China will invest no less than 500 billion yuan in the western region for infrastructure³ construction, environmental protection and livelihood⁴ improvement this year, Du told Xinhua.

China will build more infrastructure and promote development of energy, mining and agriculture in the region.