TAIYUAN -- One million people in north China's coal-rich Shanxi Province will move out of the coalmine sinking areas and shanty towns before 2008, said an official with the provincial government.

Shanxi Governor Yu Youjun made the remarks at a meeting on shanty town reconstruction, adding that the provincial government, in cooperation with state-owned coal enterprises, will spend 6.87 billion yuan (about US$859 million) to help 600,000 people move out of the shanty towns and coalmine sinking areas before 2008.

The province reclaimed 2.26 million square meters land of sinking areas last year, when about 37,000 families moved out and are now living in new houses.

Yu noted that in the 2006-2010 period, Shanxi will speed up renovating shanty towns, and build six million square meters of new houses for people in the sinking areas.

As the country's largest coal rich province, Shanxi faces the danger of expanded sinking areas, due to long-term and intensified coal mining.