Beijing, Nov 16 (IANS): A senior official from China's family planning authority said Saturday that easing the one-child policy will not put much pressure on food supplies or public services.

According to a key reform programme officially announced Friday, the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee has given the green light to couples wanting to have two children if one of the parents is an only child, a significant change from the current one-child policy, reported Xinhua.

Wang Pei'an, deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC), told Xinhua in an interview that the number of couples covered by the new policy is not very large.

In addition, there is no unified timetable nationwide to implement the new policy as regions will implement it at different times based on their local situation, said Wang.

"China's population will not grow substantially in the short term," he added, but suggested that regions which have many suitable couples should promote a reasonable birth interval to avoid birth accumulation.

There will also be annual population planning to prevent large fluctuations.

Food security and basic public resource planning are based on the estimated population of 2020 and the peak population in 2033, 1.43 billion and 1.5 billion respectively, Wang said.

The population will not see a strong increase when the new policy takes effect, and in 2020 the population will be significantly less than 1.43 billion.

"Although newborn population will increase in the next few years, it will be equivalent to that around 2000, so it is safe to say that new birth policy will not be a problem," said Wang.

China in the late 1970s introduced a policy to rein in population growth, with some estimating that it has prevented 400 million people being added to China's population, 1.34 billion at present.