China will tighten supervision of and improve assistance to its migrant population this year to improve public security, police authorities said Tuesday.

"Police departments will start a nationwide survey of the migrant population at the beginning of this year," Vice Public Security Minister Liu Jinguo said at a meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security. The meeting was broadcast live online.

Small hotels, where migrants were most likely to settle, were required to deliver check-in lists to the police regularly.

Village committees, employers and administrative centers were also encouraged to help migrants register.

China has been experiencing the world's largest population flow, with the number of migrants doubling in the past 10 years.

The country's migrant population has reached 150 million, 11.5 percent of the total. More than 80 percent of migrants are rural people seeking jobs in cities.

Liu said migrant workers were an irreplaceable force in China's modernization drive, "but crimes committed by migrants are also serious in certain areas".

Last year, 41.2 percent of suspects arrested in criminal cases were migrants, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

Liu said police authorities would join with other departments to improve the legal awareness of migrants and more efforts would be made to better protect their legal interests.

Meanwhile, police would try harder to resolve disputes between migrant populations and local residents, Liu said.

The authorities would offer more help to migrant workers in employment, housing and education of their children so as to better integrate them into the cities, Liu said.

China's household registration system divides the population into rural and non-rural households. Rural residents, who move to live and work in cities, are required to register for temporary residency.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2007)