Chinese Land and Resources Minister Xu Shaoshi said Tuesday new land allocated for development rose 67 percent year on year in the first quarter to 1 million mu (66,667 hectares).

About 39.2 percent of the total supply was earmarked for residential property development, up 10.2 percent year on year, Xu said at a land resources work conference in Beijing.

The government planned to supply 180,000 hectares of land for homes this year nationwide, excluding Tibet Autonomous Region, compared with 76,461 hectares in 2009, the Ministry of Land and Resources said last week.

Land prices in 105 cities rose 8.1 percent year on year to 2,700 yuan (US$395.31) per square meter on average, Xu said.

Xu urged local governments to strictly control the number of new projects undertaken this year, especially overcapacity and redundant projects, in a bid to ease the imbalance between land supply and demand.

Governments at all levels should adopt tougher controls on land use to promote industrial upgrading and transformation of the country's economic growth pattern, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2010)