China has built 33,000 kilometers of new freeways over the past five years, taking the country's total to 74,000 kilometers, the country's top transportation official said Tuesday.

The total was still short of the 100,000 kilometers of expressways in the United States, the longest in the world, Li Shenglin, China's Minister of Transport said at a national conference on transportation.

Meanwhile, 639,000 kilometers of new roads were built over the past five years, with 527,000 kilometers of them built in rural areas, bringing the country's road length to well over 3.98 million kilometers, Li said.

According to the government's freeway development plan over the next five years, Li forecast China would complete construction of seven new freeways radiating out from the capital city of Beijing, nine expressways running north to south, as well as an extra 18 thruways running east to west.

By the end of the 12th Five-Year-Plan period (2011-2015), Li believed China could overtake the United States in terms of freeway developments and rank the first on earth in this regard.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2010)