China Reinsurance Co, the nation's largest reinsurer, is in talks with overseas investors about selling a strategic stake, the regulator said.

China Reinsurance, which said in October it planed to sell shares to the public, may also sell stakes to investors abroad, Li Kemu, vice chairman of China's insurance regulator, said Tuesday at a central bank conference in Beijing.

The company gave no timetable for an IPO that would offer investors more options to benefit from China's 24 percent growth in premiums in the first nine months of this year.

"Many insurance companies now primarily depend on investment gains to drive earnings," Li said, urging insurers to concentrate on their main business. "Chinese insurers must learn to balance investment gains and premium growth. Both these wheels have to be running."

China needs to prepare for a "safe introduction" of stock index futures, Shang Fulin, chairman of China's securities regulator, said at the same conference. He also said companies in Asia's fastest-growing economy need to increase sales of corporate bonds.

Beijing-based China Reinsurance converted into a shareholding company after receiving $4 billion in funding in January from Central Huijin Investment Co, the central bank's investment arm.

The reinsurer reorganized into four units in 2003: property insurance, life reinsurance, property reinsurance and asset management.

China Reinsurance earlier said revenue in the first nine months this year jumped 42 percent from a year earlier to 29 billion yuan ($3.9 billion). It has 36.1 billion yuan in registered capital.