Plans for 400 million to move to cities face logistical and financial hurdles

Plans to allow more people from rural areas to move to the cities - where they can get better healthcare, education and social services - will present massive logistical and financial problems, analysts say.

Researchers said the urban population could rise by 400 million in the coming years, with a big question mark over whether the local authorities would have the cash to cope.

Communist Party leaders discussing urbanisation at a top-level meeting last week suggested a gradual easing of the hukou, or household registration system, to allow more people from the countryside to move to cities.

Allowing migrant workers full rights as urban residents was one of the government's priorities, state media reported.

The meeting said the registrations would first be made easier in small cities and townships and later in medium-sized cities. But "reasonable conditions'' should be enforced for settling in big cities, while the population in mega cities should be "strictly controlled".

Yuan Chongfa , vice-president of the China City Development Academy, said this might help rural people wanting to move to small cities in the future, but would be of little use to most migrant workers today.