Passenger traffic on China's major roads will have increased by 37 percent to 24 billion people by 2010, reports the Ministry of Communications.

Cargo traffic is expected to rise 23 percent to 16 billion tons.

By the end of 2005, China had 1.93 million kilometers of inter-provincial, inter-county and inter-town roads, including 41,000 kms of expressway. Traffic on national-level highways had reached 5,914 vehicles per day, up 29 percent from 2000. The average speed of vehicles increased from 46 kms per hour five years ago to 53 kms per hour.

"Short supply remains the major problem for the country's road transportation," said Minister of Transport Li Shenglin, who acknowledged on Thursday that road conservation is as important as road construction.

(Xinhua News Agency May 11, 2006)