China targets an 8 percent economic growth this year and will take measures to keep the development "fast" and "steady", Premier Wen Jiabao said in Beijing this morning.

The projected growth rate is 1.9 percentage points lower than the actual growth in 2005.

He has also proposed an annual growth rate of 7.5 percent for the national economy during the 11th Five-Year Plan period (2006-2010) when delivering a government report to the full session of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, that opend this morning.