China is expected to relax its decades-long one-child policy in the first quarter of 2014, said the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

The change may be implemented early next year after local legislatures passed the amended regulation, director of the family planning instruction department of the Commission, Yang Wenzhuang was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying.

The move aims to raise fertility rates and ease the financial burden of China's rapidly ageing population.

Minister in charge of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, Li Bin when briefing lawmakers on Monday warned that if the current family planning policy persisted, the birth rate would continue to fall and lead to a sharp drop in the total population after reaching a peak, the state-run news
agency reported.

Zhai Zhenwu, director of the School of Sociology and Population Studies at Renmin University of China, estimated the relaxation would lead to a mini baby boom lasting five or six years with an additional two million births a year on average.

The loosened policy would allow 15 million to 20 million Chinese couples eligible to have a second child, he said, adding a survey conducted last year showed that more than 60 per cent of newly eligible families were willing to have a second baby.

However, National People's Congress Standing Committee member Chi Wanchun said easing the policy was unlikely to abandon the family planning policy.

"Rather, it is also a measure for family planning," he was quoted as saying.