Beijing: China on March 6 hiked its Defence Budget for 2003 by 9.6 per cent, the 14th increase in as many years, to modernise the 2.5-million-strong military with high-tech weaponry to deter Taiwan from seceding and safeguard national sovereignty.

"Expenditures for national Defence in the Central Budget for 2003 amount to 185.3 billion Yuan ($ 22.43 billion), an increase of 9.6 per cent," China's Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng said, presenting China's National Budget for the current year on the second day of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's Parliament.

Defending the near-double digit hike, Xiang said China's military has to adapt to "changes in the international situation, safeguarding national security and sovereignty and territorial integrity and raising the combat effectiveness of the armed forces in fighting wars to defend the country with the use of high- technology".

The 9.6 per cent hike is more than the around seven per cent gross domestic product (GDP) growth the outgoing Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji has set for this year.

Commenting on the 9.6 per cent hike, Defence analysts said that it was more or less on expected lines since the world's largest standing Army, the People's Liberation Army (PLA), was in the process of modernising with the induction of more high-tech weaponry from countries like Russia and Israel.

At the same time, it was pointed out that the real Budget for the military could be between three and four times the published figure.

PTI