"A trial project has already been conducted in the eastern provinces and rich provinces, which has been quite successful," Chen Yaobang said, adding this year's focus should be on the western and central areas.

And Wan Zhibao, former director of the State Forestry Administration, said the State Council would soon map out plans to develop mountainous regions.

According to Justin Lin Yifu, vice-chairman of the Committee for Economic for Economic Affairs of the CPPCC National Committee, the key issue for the new socialist countryside is to improve farmers' incomes, which could be achieved by developing modernized agriculture and non-agriculture business.

"But the construction of the 'new socialist countryside', a move aiming to narrow China's yawning urban-rural wealth gap, should not be misunderstood as the construction of new villages," Lin said.

Some village heads, for instance, after visiting Huaxi Village in East China's Jiangsu Province, were impressed by its pretty buildings and took it for granted that the new building was a symbol for the "new socialist countryside", Lin said.

In Huaxi, the average annual villager income is 41.8 times that of the country's farmers in 2004. It is regarded as the model for the new countryside concept.

"That kind of misunder-standing will increase farmers' financial burden and impair their interests," Lin said.

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