URUMQI - China is planning to expand broadband Internet coverage to more of its vast rural areas during the country's 12the Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), an official said in here Monday.

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Xi Guohua, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said at a conference that China aims to increase broadband Internet access in rural areas, making it available to 95 percent of the country's administrative villages by the end of 2015. Eighty percent of China's administrative villages have broadband access at the present time.

The Chinese government also plans to expand telephone service to all villages with more than 20 households during the same period, according to Xi.

Due to environmental and infrastructure-related issues, there are still hundreds of thousands of villages in China that do not have access to telephone services, he said.

China will establish a long-term system that will boost the development of rural communication networks with government financial support over the next five years, he added.

By the end of 2010, all of China's administrative villages and 94 percent of villages with more than 20 households had access to telephone services.