China will offer a large range of benefits to families that have followed the country's family-planning policy, a government circular said on Monday.

"The design and implementation of policies that benefit the general public should show preferential treatment to families that have implemented child-planning policies," the circular said.

The favorable policies, mainly targeting rural families, range from housing and health to education and poverty-alleviation, according to a circular co-issued by 14 government departments and agencies.

Poverty-alleviation and house renovation, training programs, land rearrangement, introduction of new technology and relocation subsidies will favor single-child families or those with two daughters, it said.

The move aims at "enhancing population and family-planning work" in rural areas, according to the circular.

China will also increase investment in rural family-planning work and improve the quality of family-planning personnel, it said.

"The growth of investment in rural population and family-planning work should exceed that of government revenue," the circular said.

The circular also encouraged counties and townships to choose cadres specializing in population management and family planning through "democratic elections", with their pay to be raised to the level of "key cadres in a county committee".

(Xinhua News Agency November 20, 2007)