Zhao said coal-mine safety made great strides last year, as the average number of deaths dropped to 0.89 for each 1 million tons of coal, compared with 1.18 in 2008.

China's gross crude coal output reached 2.95 billion tons in 2009, official figures show.

North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region received the praise from Zhao for having kept the rate close to zero, or at 0.05. The region last year overtook neighboring Shanxi province as China's largest crude coal producer.

"The achievement is outstanding," work safety director Luo Lin said at yesterday's meeting.

Luo said the autonomous region was able to do so because it invested heavily in work safety.

Zhao estimated that China's crude coal output in 2010 will rise to 3.1 billion tons, putting more pressure on coal-mine safety.

He said more than 4,400 coal mines are expanding or about to boost their capacities.

In addition, the growing depths of pits at China's coal mines add to Zhao's worries.

"The average depth is 456 m," he said. "The deepest goes to 1,365 m."

"It shocked my colleagues in South Africa when I told them that," he added.

Coal miners in South Africa usually stop digging at 350 m underground.

The administration also vowed to tighten controls on small coal mines, which it said accounted for nearly 70 percent of coal-mine deaths last year.

"We must limit the number of small coal mines to 10,000 by the end of this year," added Zhao.

The watchdog closed 1,088 such mines in 2009.