BEIJING - CHINA should move quickly to provide rural areas with better education, health, social security and employment services to sustain the country's economic growth during the global slowdown, a UN agency said on Sunday.

Despite the progress Beijing has made in reducing poverty and increasing life expectancy and literacy, rural citizens in China still have less access to basic public services than city dwellers, the UN Development Program said.

In its China Human Development Report, the UN agency said such gaps pose challenges to equitable human development in the country.

UN Resident Coordinator in China Khalid Malik said the Chinese government recognizes the economic importance of providing basic services to its citizens, especially at this time of global economic uncertainty.

'The government's ... fast-paced actions to do so will go a long way to ease the challenges at home and abroad from the financial crisis and economic slowdown' he said in a statement. 'These timely actions can make people feel more secure to consume, and in turn, help realize China's urgent goal of keeping a high economic growth rate.'

China announced a nearly US$600 billion (S$912 billion) package this month to boost economic growth through higher spending on construction and social programs. It was unclear, however, how much of that would be spent on rural programs.

The UN said China's strong economic growth has enabled the country to reduce rural poverty from 30.7 per cent in 1978 to just 1.6 per cent in 2007, but rapid growth is likely to be increasingly difficult to sustain without public service sector reforms.

'If poor households do not have access to affordable public services of good quality, the income gap between rural and urban areas will continue to translate into gaps in access to health care, education, safe water and other basic services and create the danger of a poverty trap,' the report said.

'Without strong action, the great gaps in basic public services and the disparities in human capital that they engender may create permanent divisions that are difficult to reverse.'

The agency said construction of a basic social security system is still focused on urban areas.

It said that while urban areas now have 'relatively sound' insurance programs for old age, medical, unemployment and work-related injuries, such schemes are only being explored in rural areas.

The disparities between regions was marked in the education sector, the report said.

The average public funding rate per student for primary and junior middle schools in Shanghai, where it was the highest, was about 10 times that of central Henan province, which had the lowest figures in the country, it said.

The development report was being released as China's President Hu Jintao attended a weekend meeting of world leaders battling a global economic crisis.

Mr Hu told the meeting that 'steady and relatively fast growth in China is in itself an important contribution to international financial stability and world economic growth'. -- AP