BEIJING, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- China will adjust or tailor more policies to eliminate poverty among women, according to a white paper titled Gender Equality and Women's Development in China issued by the Information Office of China's State Council on Wednesday.

The Outline for the Development of Chinese Women puts forth the main goals of reducing the extent of poverty among and the number of poor women, and calls for more support for poverty-stricken women in the country's western development strategy, it says.

Meanwhile, the state poverty-reduction program has made it clear that the government strives to further motivate the women in the poverty-stricken areas to engage in household sideline production, launch labor-intensive and other poverty-reduction projects that are particularly suitable for women, and organize women to learn practical skills and enhance their ability to shake off poverty and become well-off.

At the Global Conference on Speeding Up Poverty Reduction, held in Shanghai in 2004, the Chinese government made a statement on its policy concerning the alleviation and elimination of poverty, which stressed the principle that, all factors being equal, preference will be given to poor women, and encouraged poor women to take part in poverty-reduction programs, and promised that the ratio of women participants would be no less than 40 percent of the total, the white paper says.

Besides, the government has increased its financial input into poverty-reduction work in recent years, says the paper.

In 2004 alone, 12.2 billion yuan (1.49 billion US dollars) was allocated by the central treasury revenue for poverty reduction projects, and local governments also increased their inputs into this field.

During the period from 2001 to 2004, a total of 13.52 billion yuan (1.65 billion US dollars) in small-sum credit loans for rural households were granted from the state poverty-reduction discount loans, and more than half of the money went to women.

With the implementation of large-scale and effective special poverty-reduction development programs, the government has succeeded in reducing the poverty-stricken rural population, mainly women, by 53.9 million, from 80 million in 1994 to 26.1 million in 2004, the white paper says.