China claims to wipe out poverty

China has announced that it has eliminated absolute poverty among its vast population.

An official from the State Council or cabinet Gao Hongbin, said most people now had an annual income of about seventy seven dollars, the poverty benchmark set by the government.

He said the seventy percent of people who lived in rural areas had sufficient income to afford the basic necessities of food and shelter.

But some twenty six million people are said to still earn less than the government recomended level. Many of them are disabled, others are living in grim conditions. Correspondents say China's claim to have wiped out poverty differs from United Nations' estimates which define the poverty threshold as an income below one dollar a day.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service