BOAO, Hainan -- China is to maintain a strategic oil reserve amounting to the equivalent of 30 days of imports by the year 2010, a senior official said here Saturday.

Chen Deming, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, made the remarks at the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2007 held in Boao, a coastal town in southernmost Hainan Province.

China's plan for its strategic oil reserve capacity is based on two factors, one is the country's financial power and the other is the conditions of the world oil market, Chen said at a symposium on energy and resources of the annual conference.

As international oil price is still at a high level, China will be prudent in building up its strategic oil reserve and try not to cause sharp fluctuations in oil price, he said.

China has started building four strategic oil reserve bases in Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo and Zhoushan respectively. The first one in Ningbo of eastern China's Zhejiang Province has been put into operation.