Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju Tuesday called for improved safety measures in the nation's coal mines.

Acknowledging the importance, urgency and arduousness for the enhancement of the work relating to coal mining safety, Huang said that "Ensuring safe production in coal mines is a top priority of the country," during a working conference held in Huainan City in East China's Anhui Province on April 25-26.

Comprehensive measures should be adopted to effectively guard against and curb gas blasts, so as to effect a rise in coal mining safety in China and promote the coordinated growth of coal mining production, Huang said. Overall, he noted, safety production in China's collieries has been improving with the total number of mining accidents and exceptionally big tragedies reduced and the death toll of those killed in collieries lowered year by year.

Nevertheless, he said, owing to the strained coal supply, fragile managerial foundation and inadequate supervision measures, there is still the occurrence of big and exceptionally big blasts from time to time. He underscored the need for reducing mine blasts, which have become a big threat to the lives of miners.

Huang, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, called for increasing investment in mine safety and for coal mines to use advanced technologies and equipment.

The conference was sponsored jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the National Work Safety and Supervision General Administration, and the National Coal Mine Safety Supervision Administration.

China is the world's biggest coal producer. The coal industry has been plagued by a growing number of disasters over the years.

The number of deaths in China's mines soared 20.8 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to 1,113, a source with the government said in early April.