Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday urged governments at all levels to invest more and work harder for a leap-forward in agricultural modernization and breakthroughs in building a new relationship between industry and agriculture and between urban and rural areas.

This is imperative for "laying a solid foundation for the building of a new socialist countryside" in the country, Hu said at a lecture attended by members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

Hu, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, highlighted the importance of rural development in China where rural residents constitute the majority of its population of 1.3 billion.

"If we can not make success in developing agriculture and rural areas while helping farmers to improve their lives remarkably, we will fail to reach the goal of building a comparatively prosperous society in an all-round way and realizing modernization of the whole country, the common prosperity of all the people and the lasting political stability of the nation," he said.

Despite the progress in developing agriculture and rural areas and improving the people's living standards, "we must be aware of the major contradictions and problems we are faced with," the president stressed.

Hu urged Party and government officials across the country to go to the grassroots level to listen to farmers' ideas and proposals, and set development targets and measures according to the local conditions, with emphasis placed on the fundamental interests of the rural population.

Party organizations and government departments should make concerted efforts to mobilize the initiative of farmers and the general public for the building of a new socialist countryside.

The president also called for timely summarization of useful experiences for the development of agriculture and rural areas.

Two research fellows from the Ministry of Agriculture and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences were invited to give lectures on building a new socialist countryside. They also put forward their views and proposals.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2006)