Lu Ying, director of the ministry's China Center for Adoption Affairs, said China now has far fewer children available for foreigners seeking to adopt.

"More domestic families have adopted children from our center in recent years, and economic and social development means that fewer children have been abandoned or orphaned," Lu said.

Consistent with international conventions, preference is given to domestic families.

The number of foreigners applying to adopt a child in China has increased, and the wait is now 14 to 15 months, Lu said.

"The new rules will help shorten the waiting time for qualified foreigners and speed up the process for children, especially the disabled, so they can go to their new families, where they can get better education and medical treatment," he said.

The rules were enacted to safeguard the interests of the children and guarantee them optimal family conditions, he said.

The new rules, to take effect on May 1, make it more difficult for overweight, single and lower-income foreigners to adopt. They give priority to stable, well-off foreign couples age 30 to 50.

Reports by foreign media said the new rules were aimed at curbing the number of foreigners who can adopt Chinese children.

Xing Kaimin, an adoption affairs official, denied the charge, saying the new criteria were meant to protect children's interests.

Obese people, for example, are more likely to suffer from disease and might have a shorter life expectancy, which of course has consequences for the adopted child, Xing said.

Other criteria state that the applicant couple must have been married for at least two years, and those who were divorced must have been in new marriages for at least five years.

The current law allows single foreigners to adopt Chinese children.

Another new requirement states that adoptive families must have fewer than four children.