BEIJING, Mar 11 (AP) -- Weak funding for education and a widening gap between rich and poor is fueling a major rise in juvenile crime in China, a member of China's national legislature was quoted on Friday as saying.

Almost 19 percent of criminal suspects in 2003 were juveniles, up from 11.8 percent in 2000, the state-run newspaper China Daily and other media quoted lawmaker Huang Jingjun as saying.

Huang said rising youth crime was strongly related to the widening gap in recent years between Chinese who have accumulated vast wealth and those who have seen their incomes stagnate, or have fallen into poverty.

Youth problems have been aggravated by poor schools, indifferent teachers, a lack of attention from busy or absent parents and poor enforcement of laws to protect minors, Huang was quoted as saying.

Unemployment rates among school dropouts are relatively high. Easier access to drugs and pornography _ as well as media reports on extravagant lifestyles -- have also made crime more tempting, he said.

"At present, a large number of idle and unaccompanied minors are turning up on the streets with no one to look after them, becoming a sort of reserve force for juvenile crime," he said.

Huang noted that a high number of juveniles are involved in violent crime. He cited the example of a youth detention center in northeastern China, where 77 percent of inmates were accused of violent crimes and 11 percent were being held for sex crimes.

Although China's cities remain among the world's safest, numerous well-publicized violent crimes -- some committed by minors -- have led to accusations of widespread police incompetence.

China arrested 811,102 criminal suspects in 2004, up 8.3 percent from the year before, the government said in a report to the legislature Wednesday. It did not say how many of those arrested were under age 18.

Huang called for better enforcement of China's nine-year compulsory education, saying many students -- especially girls -- in impoverished areas drop out after only finishing primary school. He also urged a crackdown on drugs and pornography, along with "further improvements in the environment in which young people are brought up."