China's soaring real estate sector, which some experts say shows signs of over-heating, has made illegal land acquisitions and sales headlines throughout the country, which is likely to ignite resentment across China's lesser-developed rural areas.

Over 60 per cent of land use is illegal, state media reported early this month.

The Ministry of Land and Resources is calling for a thorough investigation into illegal land use and sales, which are against national land management plan and polices, especially illicit land use of farmland, which are mostly used for real estate sector, the newspaper says.

An investigation conducted by the ministry in 2005 showed the number and total area of illegal land acquisition cases accounted 63.8 per cent and 52.8 per cent respectively of newly-allocated construction projects in 70 districts in 15 cities, the China Daily newspaper reported.

"China is in the face of tough situations in illegal land use control due to a large number of misconducts, " Land Resources Supervision Bureau director Zhang Xinbao told the paper.

"In the first five months of 2006, the ministry found the total acreage of illegal land use rose by 20 percent compared with the same period of last year." Zhang said, without giving any further details.

"Illegal land use is rampant in some areas and China has seen more and more illegal land use in connection with provincial governments," Zhang says.

"Illegal use of the land will lead to the sabotage of the rights of the farmers and the country," says Zhang.