A senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official has underscored efforts to conserve the country's millennia folk cultural heritage and boost the development of folk culture.

"Folk culture workers should fully tap the rich resources in the country and carry forward the fine traditions to strive for the prosperity of folk culture," said Liu Yunshan, CPC's publicity chief, at a four-day national conference of the China Folk Literature and Art Society, which closed in Beijing on Saturday.

Liu, also member of the Political Bureau and the Secretariat of the CPC Central Committee, praised the folk culture workers for the hard work over the past years, saying they have made major contributions to enriching the spiritual life of the Chinese.

He hoped they could further popularize China's folk culture especially in rural areas when the whole nation is engaged in the building of a new countryside.

(Xinhua News Agency April 22, 2006)