Meanwhile, the national highway trunk system will be completed next year.

Li Shenglin told a Beijing conference that 4,460 kilometres of new expressways had been built and opened across China this year.

China currently has 45,400 kilometres of expressways, the second-longest in the world only after the United States, which had 90,000 kilometres in 2005.

According to the country's expressway plan, China will have 85,000 kilometres of expressways by 2020.

Between 2006 and 2010, China will build 24,000 kilometres of new expressways, equal to the combined total in Canada and Germany, which rank third and fourth in the world in terms of expressway length.

China is also building a national highway trunk system, composed of five north-south highways and seven east-west highways, with a total length of 35,000 kilometres.

Li said that the remaining 2,385 kilometres would be completed in 2007.

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