THE income of Chinese farmers grew faster than urban residents but the income gap between the two groups remained huge, a senior government official said yesterday.

In the first three quarters, seasonally-adjusted cash earnings of rural residents rose 13.6 percent from a year earlier, or 5.8 percentage points faster than urban residents, said Zhang Ping, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic planning agency.

In the past two years, rural residents saw their earnings rise 9.7 percent annually, or 0.9 percentage point higher than their urban counterparts, Zhang said when he reported to top Chinese lawmakers.

To address the issue of a huge income gap between the two groups of residents Zhang said China should deepen reform of income distribution and ensure that an increasing number of ordinary people can get a bigger share in the primary distribution of the country's wealth.

On Tuesday Premier Wen Jiabao urged that China must ensure rural residents get to enjoy a bigger share of profits from farmland seized for economic growth.

He also warned government officials not to force villagers to give up their farmland rights if they go to the cities to look for jobs.