BEIJING -- China plans to shut down all coal mines with an annual capacity of 30,000 tons or less by the end of this year, according to the State Administration of Work Safety (SAWS), citing safety concerns.

Furthermore, the SAWS coal mine safety plan urges local governments to deny approvals for coal mines with an annual capacity of 300,000 tons or less during the 2006-2010 period.

Some small coal mines will be merged into big ones through technological upgrading and resource integration.

China has 23,000 registered small coal mines. Statistics show that while they produce one-third of the country's coal, they are responsible for two-thirds of coal mine deaths.

China has set a goal of reducing the death rate for production of 1 million tons of coal by more than 25 percent by 2010, an annual drop of at least 5 percent from 2006 to 2010.

China's 2005 death rate for 1 million tons of coal was 2.81 percent.