Luo Lin, chief of the State Administration of Work Safety, said Saturday that the country would take measures to close 1,000 small-sized coal mines this year, in a move to improve coal mining management and work safety.

Luo said at an industry conference held in Nanchang, the capital city of eastern Jiangxi Province that the seven severe gas-triggered accidents at coal mines across China in August all happened at smaller coal mines with annual production capacity less than 300,000 tonnes.

Since 2005, China has closed more than 12,000 small coal mines whose annual output were below 300,000 tonnes.

Official figures showed that China's raw coal production rose 8.9 percent year on year in the first seven months to 1.61 billion tonnes nationwide.

(Xinhua News Agency September 5, 2009)