BEIJING - The number of official micro blog accounts has hit 20,000 on Sina Weibo, a major Twitter-like microblog service in China, according to a report issued by Sina Corp., a popular Chinese web portal operator, on Monday.

So far, there are over 10,000 verified micro blog accounts of government departments and about 9,000 verified personal accounts owned by officials from across the country, according to the report.

The number of official micro blog accounts quadrupled in 2011, up from 5,000 at the beginning of 2011, it said.

The report also shows that more economically developed regions, including eastern, southern and northern China, have more official accounts than areas in central and western China.

In 2010, official accounts were mainly registered by officials and departments of public security, tourism, publicity and justice. In 2011, the distribution tended to span more evenly to cover other fields such as education, culture and sports.

The top ten government department accounts have 10.3 million followers with a total of 46,000 posted threads, while the top ten accounts owned by officials have 10.8 million followers with 44,000 posted threads, according to the report.

The official micro blogs, due to their interactive nature, give people a greater voice, said Wang Yukai, a professor with the Chinese Academy of Governance.

The new development is a major breakthrough, as it is no longer propaganda but equal, interactive communication between the government and the people, said Zhao Feng, who is in charge of the "Ping'anbeijing," or "Safe Beijing," microblog account owned by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau.