China, trying to plug a yawning gap between rich and poor, said it would reduce farm taxes, offer subsidies to boost rural incomes and step up grain production, state media and government officials said on Monday. China's leaders, worried about unrest flaring among the 800 million people in the vast countryside, where incomes were a third of city dwellers' in 2003, have made boosting farmers' incomes a top priority.

"Agriculture remains a weak link in the development of the national economy with insufficient input ... and a long-term mechanism of increasing grain production and farmers' incomes yet to be established," the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a government document.

The agriculture document, labelled the number-one priority for 2005, said the government would extend tax cuts to more provinces, including major livestock-rearing regions.

Copyright Reuters, 2005