Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang Monday urged more government funding for the building of a social security system for rural areas.

The priority for the rural areas' social security system is to improve the systems of the basic pension, basic health insurance and a minimum subsistence allowance in rural areas, said Zhang at a meeting in Beijing.

He said the government will continue to push ahead on the new rural social security system and urged greater efforts toward formulating methods for transferring social security accounts between different social security systems.

He stressed the government must endeavor to expand the coverage of the rural social security system to guarantee the basic lives of farmers.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2010)