China will keep its controversial one-child policy unchanged for at least 10 years, the country's family planning chief was quoted as saying Monday, amid a government debate over easing the controls.

Any changes to strict family planning laws would only come after an expected peak in the number of births in the next decade, Zhang Weiqing, minister of the State Population and Family Planning Commission told the state-run China Daily.

"The current family planning policy, formed as a result of gradual changes in the past two decades, has proved compatible with national conditions," the English language daily quoted him as saying.

"So it has to be kept unchanged at this time to ensure stable and balanced population growth."

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Nearly 200 million Chinese will enter childbearing age in the next 10 years, the report said.

"Given such a large population base, there would be major fluctuations in population growth if we abandoned the one-child rule now," Zhang added.

"It would cause serious problems and add extra pressure on social and economic development."

Zhang's firm line was the latest rebuttal from central government authorities to officials who appeared to raise the possibility of changes ahead of the annual meeting of China's parliament, which started last week.

Zhao Baige, vice minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, was one of those voices, saying ahead of the parliament that the policy had "become a big issue among decision-makers."

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