China insurance premiums are forecast to rise 24 percent to 700 billion yuan (US$96.6 billion) in 2007, Wei Yingning, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission vice chairman, said on Tuesday.

Speaking at an international insurance conference in Beijing, he said that by the end of 2007, the total assets of the country's booming insurance sector had reached three trillion yuan and aggregated profits stood at 36 billion yuan.

Official statistics revealed the country now had 107 insurance companies. These included 62 Chinese-funded and 45 foreign-funded.

However, China's insurance companies are faced with a talent shortage amid the fast business expansion, the People's Insurance Company of China Asset Management Company said.

Experts held the talent shortage resulted from the expanded business scale and the relatively low attractiveness of the field in comparison to the more lucrative funds and securities sectors.