BEIJING, Mar 20 (AP) -- China plans to open 60 new language and cultural centers abroad to help meet "surging demand" for thousands of Chinese language teachers each year, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

The additional Confucius Institutes will join the more than 40 that have opened in nearly two dozen countries since the first was established in Seoul, South Korea, in late 2004.

Patterned on the British Council and Germany's Goethe Institutes, the rapid spread of the institutes has been hailed as a sign of China's rising global influence.

Analysts say the institutes serve an additional function of spreading official Communist Party positions on human rights and claims to Taiwan and Tibet.

The Chinese government plans to open the new centers by 2010.

China last year sent just over 2,000 teachers abroad, but has another 5,000 certified instructors in reserve, Xinhua said.

It quoted the head of the Education Ministry's Office of Chinese Language Council International as saying that teacher recruitment among college graduates was being stepped up.

"The greatest challenge we are facing now is to meet the surging demand for Chinese teachers," Xu said.