UPDATE 1-PRESS DIGEST - China - May 6

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

FINANCIAL NEWS

-- The Agricultural Development Bank of China, one of the country's three policy lenders, saw its non-performing loan ratio drop to 6.07 percent by the end of March, down 0.22 percent from the beginning of the year.

-- China's insurance firms need to step up efforts to build their own culture and brands to match the industry's fast growth, said Yuan Li, assistant chairman of the China Insurance Regulatory Commission.

CHINA DAILY (www.chinadaily.com.cn)

-- The People's Liberation Army has pledged to help handle any emergency to ensure a successful Olympics. Land, sea and air forces will be sent to the capital from Shenyang, Nanjing and Jinan.

-- A lethal enterovirus has claimed 26 lives in Anhui, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces, and more than 8,500 children below the age of 6 have reportedly become ill in those and other provinces, the Ministry of Health said.

-- Security in Tiananmen Square in the Chinese capital was tightened beginning on Monday in a bid to prevent people entering the area with potentially dangerous items.

PEOPLE'S DAILY

-- China's eastern Zhejiang province has reported 1,198 hand-foot-mouth cases, including one death.

-- The central bank's Shanghai offices have begun labelling loans as blue, green, yellow and red to guide local lenders as part of credit tightening. Loans labelled as red should be restricted or prohibited.

-- China sold more than 320,000 tickets for the Olympic Games on the first day of the third-phase of ticket sales during which 1.38 million tickets will be available to the public.

CHINA SECURITIES JOURNAL

-- Suning Appliance Co (002024.SZ), Vanke (000002.SZ) and Merchants Bank (600036.SS) won the top three places in the newspaper's 2007 Golden Bull awards, in which listed companies were ranked according to their sales, market capitalisation, growth potential and return to shareholders.

-- Appreciation of the yuan CNY=CFXS against the dollar may slow as the dollar regains strength globally and as domestic pressure for appreciation eases, analysts say. Some analysts now question the effectiveness of yuan appreciation in fighting inflation.