ANNUAL MEETING OF PARLIAMENT IN CHINA!

Chinese PM issues rural pledge.

Mr Wen promised more rural protection. China's prime minister has ended an annual meeting of parliament vowing to improve the lives of poor farmers, amid worries about rising rural tensions. Wen Jiabao promised to punish officials who seized land without offering compensation and to tackle a growing gap between China's rich and poor. Mr Wen also accused Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian of damaging stability by pressing for the island's independence. Other issues raised included media freedom, Japan, India, and the economy. This year there appears to have been more debate and disagreement as China addresses some of the problems inherent in its breakneck economic growth.

NPC session fosters debate
Rural millions left behind

Standing before a television audience of hundreds of millions, Mr Wen told them that he felt their pain. In particular he was talking to China's 700 million peasant farmers. "We will make sure we guarantee the long-term land rights of farmers. We will maintain the strictest controls to prevent their land being forcibly taken away from them," he said. One of the Chinese prime minister's greatest talents is his ability to empathise, says a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes. But when it came to concrete measures he was far less clear, our correspondent says. Asked if he supported giving peasants legal title to their land, he said China's current system of collective ownership was still the best.

Taiwan flashpoint

The issue of land seizures for development is one of the catalysts for growing social unrest in China's countryside. Commenting on the rise, Mr Wen said: "China is in a stage of rapid economic development, which is a period when various contradictions emerge." For Taiwan there were both threats and conciliation. He accused Taiwan's president of "risky, dangerous and deceptive" behaviour, and said Mr Chen was intensifying efforts to make the island independent. At the same time he offered direct talks, if Taiwan recognised Beijing's principle of "one China" - something Taiwan's leaders have never been prepared to do.

Mr Wen also said:

There would not be another surprise revaluation of China's currency
That relations with Japan would not improve unless its leaders stopped visiting the Yasukuni war shrine
That environmental protection would improve, following a string of industrial accidents.

China and India should boost ties and usher in a "new Asian century"

The issue of China's control over its media was also raised, following a crackdown on errant websites and newspapers in the last few months. Mr Wen said internet companies in particular should be careful to censor their content. "We maintain that the (internet) industry should exercise self-discipline and self-management," he said. "Websites should convey right messages and information and should refrain from misleading the general public or exerting an adverse impact on social and public order."

BBC NEWS REPORT.