China's State Council, the Cabinet, has labeled a further 32 cities as resource-exhausted cities, making the total number at 44, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said Thursday.

The central government offers money support to these types of cities through a fiscal transfer system to boost regional economic development, but the amount was not mentioned.

NDRC said it would not designate more resource-exhausted cities in the near future.

The metal-rich Tongling in the eastern Anhui Province and the coal-rich Jingdezhen in the eastern Jiangxi Province are among the 32 cities.

Resource-exhausted cities refer to those whose economic development relied on the exploitation of raw materials such as coal and oil, and now face difficulties because of a decline in supply of such resources.

The first 12 such cities were announced in May 2008, including the coal-rich Jiaozuo in the central Henan Province, and the oil-rich city Panjin in the northeastern Liaoning Province.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)