CHINA, the world's second-biggest energy user, will raise prices of natural gas for industrial users soon to reflect rising global costs of the fuel, an industry planner said.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic policy planning body, will increase prices "in days," said Gu Zongqin, president of the state-backed China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Planning Institute, in a phone interview after an industry conference in Beijing on Saturday.

China's fertilizer makers will pay 0.8 yuan (10 US cents) a cubic meter of gas compared with 0.7 to 0.8 yuan at present, said Gu, without giving details on price increases for other businesses, Bloomberg News reported.

China will accelerate changes this year on the pricing of energy resources, National Statistics Bureau spokesman Li Xiaochao said on April 19.

The reform commission is preparing a price increase announcement, said a PetroChina Co executive with knowledge of the decision on April 5. The executive declined to be named because of company policy.

Prices were last raised in December 2005. Prices paid by industries and city-gas distributors increased by between 50 yuan and 150 yuan per 1,000 cubic meters, the commission said at the time, without giving comparative figures.

Gas prices will be revised annually, within an eight percent band, from the previous year's level, the commission said then. Beijing last month raised prices of gas supplied to households by 7.9 percent to reflect rising costs.