BEIJING, Oct. 5 (Xinhua) -- China will base its coal production increase on the operation of more large-scale coal enterprises, the merging of small coal mines, and technological innovation, according to the state work safety watchdog.

China will raise its coal production by 400 million tons during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010), said Wang Xianzheng, deputy director of the State Administration of Work Safety.

The increase shall not be pursued at the cost of miners' lives, Wang said, noting that backward technologies will be abandoned and qualified small coal mines will be merged to strengthen their management and production capacity.

The country also plans to build ten large strip-mines with a production capacity of ten million tons each and ten modern mine shafts with a scale of ten million tons each, he said.

Meanwhile, China plans to promote the establishment of six to eight super coal production enterprises with a yield of 100 million tons each and eight to ten large coal companies with a production of 50 million tons each. They will account for more than 50 percent of the country's total coal output by 2010, he said.

China reported a total coal output of more than 2.3 billion tons last year.

Coal mining, however, has been considered the deadliest industry in China, which killed thousands of lives every year due to poor security guarantee.

Over the last two years, China has closed more than 9,000 small mines and will shut another 1,000 by the end of 2007.