China planted 4.8 million hectares of trees in six major forestry projects in 2004, accounting for 86 percent of its afforested area of the year, according to a bulletin publicized by the State Forestry Bureau on Saturday.

The Chinese government invested 35.1 billion yuan (about 4.3 billion US dollars) in the forestation projects in 2004, the bulletin said.

A total of 25.32 million hectares of trees have been added thanks to the nationwide projects launched in 1998, which have cost 126.4 billion yuan (about 15.6 billion US dollars), it said.

The projects will cost more than 700 billion yuan (about 86.3 billion US dollars) and cover over 97 percent of counties across the country.

Source: Xinhua