China's exports increased by 34 percent year-on-year to touch $218.05 billion in the first four months of the year, Xinhuanet reported.

The country's imports rose 13.3 percent to $196.87 billion in the same period, the General Administration of Customs said in its latest report.

The report said China's trade surplus stood at $21.17 billion in the first four months of 2005 with the country recording a $4.59 billion trade surplus in April alone.

According to the report, the European Union remained China's biggest trading partner with a bilateral trade of $65.2 billion from January to April, followed by the US and Japan with trade volumes at $61.28 billion and $57.54 billion respectively.

Guangdong, Jiangsu and Shanghai remained the country's top three exporting zones.

Crude oil imports grew fairly fast in April, the customs administration said, partly suggesting that China's energy crunch has yet to be eased amid rapid economic expansion.

Oil imports decreased 1.7 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of the year, but the trend reversed in April, leading to a rise of 4.4 percent in the first four months.

Also in the first four months, imports of coal hit 7.37 million tonnes and iron ore 87.49 million tonnes, registering a respective growth of 49.6 percent and 28 percent.

Machinery and electronic products are the bellwether among Chinese exports. In the January-April period, exports of theses items reached $119.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 34 percent.

Exports of clothes and related accessories also rose 15.6 percent to $19.27 billion.

--Indo-Asian News Service