Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday called for more efforts to enhance international cooperation to ease imbalanced education, urging developed countries to shoulder more obligation.

While addressing an United Nations conference on education in Beijing, Wen urged developed countries to shoulder more obligation and provide developing countries with effective help "without additional prerequisites".

"The developing countries have experienced a plenty of sufferings. People and children in these countries are in an urgent need of education, development and peace," said Wen.

The Fifth High Level Group Meeting on Education For All, which opened in Beijing on Monday, is sponsored by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The three-day conference is aimed at implementing plans on eliminating illiterates and enhance education for rural people in the under-developed countries in the world.

"The developing countries themselves should also strengthen cooperation and help each other, " said Wen, pledging China as the biggest developing country will increase its aid to other developing countries in educational programs.

After committing itself to "Education For All" in the 1990s, China has given priority to developing its education, especially in compulsory education, vocational education, illiteracy elimination and developing education in rural areas.

In 2004, about 94 percent of Chinese have access to free nine-year compulsory education, 9 percent up from 2000. China is revising its Compulsory Education Law to promote compulsory education in the country and offer every youngster equal access to education.

It will try to grant compulsory education to all in the western region by 2005 and across the country by 2010 and reduce the illiteracy rate of the young and middle-aged in the country to below 2 percent and that of adults to less than 5 percent.

Referring to difficulties in education for all, Wen

underscored fairness of education and hoped each Chinese could be equally educated.

"There is still educational disparity between different regions and between rural and urban areas," Wen said.

The conference is expected to issue a communique and a joint action program to facilitate the development of education for all.

Source: Xinhua