East China's Shandong Province will work hard to keep its population within 96 million by the end of 2010, according to its provincial population and family planning committee.

The committee said on Wednesday Shandong has set it a targets to maintain a low birth rate, improve quality of population, keep balanced gender ratio of newborns and to guarantee medical services for all people of the bearing age during the 2006-2010 period.

The main targets include a birth rate lower than 13 per thousand, a population growth rate lower than six percent and bringing the ratio of babies born with defects down to six per thousand. The ratio of newly-born boys and girls will be in the normal range of 107:103.

Shandong Province reported a birth rate of 12 per thousand and a population growth rate of six per thousand in the 2000-2005 period.

(Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2006)