Chinese President Hu Jintao said Saturday, July 24, that the nation must carry out comprehensively the guideline of maintaining a coordinated development of national defense and economy, so as to ensure a favorable security environment for the nation's modernization drive.

On the basis of economic development, China must make efforts to push forward the construction of national defense, Hu, also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said.

Hu made the remarks when presiding over a group study focusing on how to coordinate the military and economic development. Members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee participated in the study.

Hu said the current international situation in general favors China's goal of building a "xiaokang", or relatively well-off, society.

"We should hold high the banner of peace, development and cooperation, adhere to the independent foreign policy of peace, unswervingly persist in the way of peace development, and unswervingly safeguard world peace and promote common development," he said.

"At the same time, we should put national sovereignty and security first, resolutely safeguard the fundamental interest of the country, resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Chinese president told the study participants, all senior officials.

Hu's remarks have been interpreted by an military expert as "very important" for guaranteeing the smooth transformation of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) from the traditional army to an army that could win battles in high-tech warfare.

Under the current circumstances, a better-equipped army could take an advantageous position in the world, so a country must attach importance to military forces, said Zhu Chenghu, deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies of the PLA's National Defence University.

China is now facing security challenges, especially the question of Taiwan, according to Zhu.

Although the economic and personnel exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are important for increasing links, they could not prevent "Taiwan independence," he said in an interview with China Daily.

Military action is necessary for reunification, said Zhu.

The cross-Straits relations are becoming tense as Taiwan's leader Chen Shui-bian is taking steps to push "independence" for the island.

Both PLA and the Taiwan army are now conducting military exercises.

In his speech, President Hu urged Party committees and governments at various levels to support the reform and development in the field of national defence, further improve the construction of the reserve forces of national defence, establish a prompt and efficient mobilization system, and further improve the construction of the national defence-related legal system.

Hu also extended sincere festival greetings on behalf of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council to all soldiers and officers of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) as well as the armed police, as the 77th founding anniversary of the PLA, which falls on August 1, nears.