Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province will speed up its forestation program over the next five years with the goal of having the province 47 percent covered by forest by 2010.

An official with the provincial forestry bureau said Heilongjiang will expand its forest belt toward the western part of the province, which has been hit by desertification and drought.

It also plans to plant trees and vegetation in the barren hills and fields in the north and east Heilongjiang, the official said.

The province will increase the subsidy paid to those who plant shelter forest.

Currently, Heilongjiang has nearly 200,000 square kilometers of forest covering 42.9 percent of its land mass, the highest rate in China's.

(Xinhua News Agency February 16, 2006)