China will speed up modernizing its armed forces in the next five years and more, Hu said.

"We must implement the military strategy for the new period, accelerate the revolution in military affairs with Chinese characteristics, ensure military preparedness, and enhance the military's capability to respond to various security threats and accomplish diverse military tasks," he said.

"We are determined to safeguard China's sovereignty, security and territorial integrity and contribute to maintaining world peace."

Hu stressed that China must always adhere to "the fundamental principle of the Party exercising absolute leadership over the armed forces and the fundamental purpose of the armed forces serving the people."

To attain the strategic objective of building computerized armed forces and winning IT-based warfare, China will accelerate the composite development of mechanization and computerization, carry out military training under IT-based conditions, intensify efforts to train a new type of high-caliber military personnel in large numbers and change the mode of generating combat capabilities, he said.

China has reduced its troop numbers by 200,000 over the past few years.

(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2007)