"China's urbanization is a huge undertaking facing mankind in the 21st century," Tao Siliang, secretary of the China Mayor's Association told an international mayors' conference in southwestern Chongqing municipality.

"The urbanization of the Chinese people, who make up one-fourth of the world's population, must also be done while curbing poverty," he was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

China's current urban population of 524 million is expected to grow to between 800 and 900 million by 2020, meaning between 13 and 18 million people will move to urban areas each year, Tao said.

He said China's urbanization rate was growing about one percent a year. The urbanization rate shot up from 18.9 percent in 1990 to 40 percent in 2004.

At the present pace, some 60 percent of the Chinese population will be living in cities and towns by 2020, with urban planners expected to develop several hundred new small cities, he said.

China invested some two trillion yuan (247 billion dollars) into cities between 1998-2004 to cope with the growing urbanization rate.

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