China has set a goal of reducing the number of coalmine fatalities by 3.5 percent in 2006, according to the head of the state work safety watchdog in Beijing on Sunday.

The country will also reduce the number of workplace accidents by 7 percent this year, said Li Yizhong, director of the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS).

"Given the grave situation, we did not set too ambitious a goal," Li said, adding: "Even this will take a great effort to realize."

Chinese coalmines are death traps and considered to be the most unsafe in the world. China reported over 3,300 accidents that killed nearly 6,000 miners in 2005.

Li said China will strengthen work safety management in all coalmines this year, especially in large state-owned ones. More will be done also to prevent underground flooding and gas explosions, he stressed.

According to SAWS, China will use the rates of coalmine deaths, traffic accidents and other production-related accidents as indicators when evaluating the work of local authorities in 2006.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2006)