The operating length of China's high-speed railway will reach 13,000 km by the end of 2012, forming the world's largest high-speed railway network, according to the latest plan of the Ministry of Railways, the China Securities Journal reported.

Deputies to China's top legislature and members of its top advisory body questioned the huge profits of China's real estate developers and said they were making exorbitant profits in the real estate market.

Global miners have upped the ante in their forthcoming negotiations with Chinese steel mills by seeking a 50 percent increase in the long-term contract iron ore prices for 2010-11. Refocus on Iron Ore Talks

The 100 key retailing enterprises in China clinched 34.56 billion yuan ($5.06 billion) worth of sales in January, down 7.11 percent year-on-year, according to statistics released Wednesday.

Nearly half the proposals to the CPPCC, the annual meeting of China's top advisory body, were related to the real estate market, with the top topics being low-income housing, property taxes and mortgage loans, the China Securities Journal reported on Wednesday.

China's exports will be better in 2010 than last year and February's exports saw an increase from the previous month, said Minister of Commerce Chen Deming during the annual session of the country's top advisory body on Wednesday.

China Development Bank (CDB) lent 261.3 billion yuan ($38 billion) to country's centrally-administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs) in 2009, up 47.8 percent year-on-year, CDB said in a statement Tuesday.

The banking regulator will soon come out with rules governing the payment system for commercial lenders and may join the global efforts to curb excessive risk-taking by clamping down on bank bonuses.

Macao's gaming revenues reached 13.5 billion patacas ($1.69 billion) in February this year, an increase of about 69 percent over the same period of last year, the Macao Post Daily reported on Tuesday, quoting unnamed sources.

China recorded its widest rural-urban income gap last year since the country launched its reform and opening-up policy in 1978.