BEIJING - China's top auditor said Wednesday that the country's local governments had run up bank loans totaling almost 3 trillion yuan by the end of last year, most of it to fund infrastructure construction and to help pay for government stimulus package projects.

Liu Jiayi, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), said in a report to the 15th session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, that 18 provincial, 16 city and 36 county-level governments audited had accumulated bank debts of 2.79 trillion yuan ($410.3 billion).