North China's Shanxi Province, the country's largest coal producer, has seen improving coal mine safety as the mortality rate in coal production has dropped sharply, officials said.

On average, 85 people died in the production of every 100 million tons of coal in Shanxi last year, down from 98 in 2005 and 185 in 2000, the officials said at a provincial coal mine safety conference.

A total of 476 people died in 149 fatal coal mine accidents in the province last year.

The officials attributed the safety improvement partly to the province's continuous crackdown on illegal mines. The campaign witnessed the shutdown of 3,550 illegal mines last year.

However, major fatal accidents still happen despite the overall improvement.

Last year, Shanxi recorded eight major accidents that claimed at least 10 lives each. A total of 111 people were killed in five coal mine accidents between late October and early November.

Shanxi governor Yu Youjun made an apology at the provincial people's congress for the fatal accidents.

"As the leader of the provincial government, I shall take the responsibility for the failure and I feel restless to great extent," Yu said in a sincere tone. "We must take more effective measures this year."

Shanxi closed small and dangerous mines in the past two years and is expected to cut the number of mines to 3,200 by June this year, down from previous 9,000.

(Xinhua News Agency February 23, 2007)