Beijing needs to build at least one million automobile parking spaces to cope with a rapid increase in vehicles, according to a political adviser.

"The construction of parking spaces is lagging far behind the growth in cars, especially private cars," said Liang Yanjun, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

The one million shortage of parking spaces was calculated based on the international standard of one private parking area for each private car, and one public parking area for 15 cars, Liang said.

"Many of the cars have to be parked along the streets, causing traffic congestion and putting the owners at risk of car theft, " Liang said in a proposal to the Fifth Session of the Tenth CPPCC National Committee.

She said Beijing is not alone in suffering from limited parking spaces. "Almost 80 percent of the streets in many large and medium-sized cities face car-parking problems," said Liang.

She urged the government to build more public parking lots to resolve the problem.

She also suggested authorities adopt favorable policies to attract more private investment in the sector.

China overtook Japan to become the world's second largest market for new vehicles in 2006 after the US.