China's weeklong Lunar New Year holiday could soon include New Year's Eve as part of measures to alleviate the traditional transport rush.

Although Chinese law provides a weeklong holiday to celebrate the Lunar New Year, New Year's Eve has been excluded from the list of statutory holidays.

Fourteen newspapers around the country have called for New Year's Eve to become a legal holiday, urging the government to save people the trouble of asking for leave or enduring a transport crush in order to get home for a family dinner that night.

On China's largest portal Website, Sina.com, 98.7 percent of more than 200,000 visitors approved of the idea.

The National Development and Reform Commission is researching the issue and media reports will be an important reference for decision-makers, the Guangzhou-based Information Times quoted unidentified commission sources as saying.

The issue is also on the agenda of some legislators and political advisors, who are gathering in Beijing for their annual sessions.

Ou Hong, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, told the newspaper that he has finished a proposal for listing New Year's Eve as a legal holiday and would submit it yesterday.

"Not many people actually work on the New Year's Eve," said law professor Wu Changkang. "But the problem is that those on duty on New Year's Eve don't enjoy the triple-time pay that's legally required for working holidays."