More than 86.33 million Chinese had registered for job injury insurance as of March, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security said Thursday.

China now had the largest number of holders of such insurance in the world, officials with the ministry said in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, at a Sino-German seminar on the issue.

More than 100,000 Chinese die of vocational accidents every year, and many more are injured. More than 500,000 employees suffer from occupational diseases, statistics from the ministry show.

Compensation is the major form of the insurance to ensure the basic family needs of the victims of job injuries.

The government is studying a job injury insurance mechanism comprising prevention, compensation and rehabilitation, according to the ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency May 12, 2006)