Police needed to be better armed to deal with violent criminals and increasing attacks on law enforcers, Vice Minister Fan Jingyu told a news conference.

The central government's budget for police equipment doubled to 2.4 billion yuan (HK$2.31 billion) last year from 2004, Fan said.

In 2005, 414 police died in the line of duty and more than 4,000 were wounded or injured, Ministry of Public Security spokesperson Wu Heping said.

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Crime has boomed along with China's economy over the past 2 decades, becoming a rising threat to government control and stability.

Fan also voiced support for giving police more leeway in using firearms in order to protect themselves. "Police should follow regulations in using their guns, but the limits should not be excessively high," he said.

Police numbers are especially thin in the vast countryside, where China is grappling not only with crime but also growing unrest, largely sparked by public anger over official corruption, government land grabs and a widening wealth gap. The Public Security Ministry has put the total number of public order disturbances at a total of 87,000 last year, up 6.6 percent from 2004.

Chinese paramilitary police in December opened fire on villagers protesting against a lack of compensation for land appropriated for a new power plant in their hometown in Guangdong. The government says three people died.

Fan complained that China did not have enough police to match its population of 1.3 billion and was aiming to boost forces "on the front lines" and "at the grassroots level."

"Developed countries have an average of 35 police per 10,000 people, but China is far, far below that with a rate of 12 police per 10,000 people, even lower than in Brazil, India and some other developing countries," he said.

The vows to beef up police forces came one day after Communist Party security tsar Luo Gan called for a nationwide crackdown on organized crime to maintain stability.

REUTERS