PRESS DIGEST - China - March 6

BEIJING/SHANGHAI, March 6 (Reuters) - Chinese newspapers available in Beijing and Shanghai carried the following stories on Thursday. Reuters has not checked the stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)

-- China maintains limited military power only to secure the nation's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and won't pose a threat to any country, said a senior officer of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Wednesday.

PEOPLE'S DAILY

-- China's central government has provided 1 billion yuan ($141 million) for repair of irrigation works hit by severe winter weather.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- China's securities regulator is considering reforms to regulations on initial public offerings to favour small investors while promoting share offerings by domestic securities brokerages, said Fan Fuchun, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission.

-- China's property prices have limited room to fall due to strong demand, but price rises should be modest after surging in the past several years, said an executive at the country's largest developer Vanke (000002.SZ).

-- The listed unit of medium-sized Nanjing Iron and Steel Group (600282.SS) reported 164 percent growth in its 2007 earnings from a year earlier due to price rises in Chinese steel products

SHANGHAI SECURITIES NEWS

-- Central bank vice governor Hu Xiaolian said China's monetary tightening policy need not be carried out in a rigidly uniform manner, and noted that rural financial services were currently not appropriate for the development needs of rural areas.

SECURITIES TIMES

-- The former president of Anhui Gujing Distillery Co Ltd (000596.SZ) was sentenced to 15 years for taking bribes.

-- Xinjiang Guanghui Industry Co (600256.SS) plans to invest 12.9 billion yuan in a 600,000 tonne alkene project due for completion by 2011.

CHINA BUSINESS NEWS

-- China is expected to kick off a long-awaited restructuring of its telecommunications sector that would involve mergers among main players as early as the first half of 2008, a senior official at the country's state-owned asset management body said in an interview.