The transformation-based international military competition became increasingly competitive this year, a Chinese strategy expert said on Thursday.

"In 2008, the world has seen a high number of regional wars and military conflicts, which broke out in focused regions and because of different causes," Chinese International Strategy Institute(CISI) President Xiong Guangkai told the institute's annual seminar on Thursday.

"Big countries' new military transformation which focused on developing information-based technologies is going deeper," said Xiong, who was former deputy chief of the general staff of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA).

"The international military competition has became increasingly competitive."

He said the nuclear proliferation and arms control situation remain "grim".

On the non-traditional security threats, Xiong said those threats were no longer limited to terrorism, but wreaked havoc in other fields like climate change, food security, energy, economy and finance, among others.

"The international financial crisis triggered by the U.S. credit crunch is prominent this year," Xiong told an audience of nearly 200 retired generals, diplomats and experts at the conference.

Confronted with such a situation, Xiong said the international community has paid more attention to the global security dialogue and cooperation.

"The world's major militaries are stepping up their war capabilities on the one hand and increase their non-war military capabilities, so as to deal with those security threats," Xiong said.

He said China's security situation was also faced with many risks and challenges although its overall trend remained good.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2008)