The defence budget will rise 12.7 percent in 2011 to 601.1 billion yuan ($91.7 billion), according to Li Zhaoxing, spokesman of the national parliament and a former foreign minister.

He said the figure was contained in a budgetary report submitted for approval to the National People's Congress, which opens its annual 10-day session on Saturday.

"China has always paid attention to controlling the size of defence spending," Li told reporters, describing spending as "relatively low" as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with the rest of the world.

Li said the figure represented six percent of the total national budget in the world's second-largest economy.

AFP