China on Tuesday set up a taskforce to draft a law on energy, government sources said on Wednesday.

The taskforce, which includes officials from 15 government departments or the national legislature, is headed by Ma Kai, minister in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the National Energy Office, which was established on June 2, 2005.

A panel of experts specialized in energy, law, economics and public management have been recruited as advisors, sources with the commission said.

"The complicated and changing international environment poses new challenges to the country's energy and economic security," the taskforce said in a statement.

Coal remains the mainstay of China's energy supply, together with electricity, oil, natural gas and renewable energy resources.

But China still does not have a law that reflects its energy strategy and policy orientation, and that regulates the structure of various energy products and energy-related activities, the statement read.

China is in urgent need of formulating such a basic, comprehensive law on energy to ensure national economic security, energy exploitation and international energy cooperation, and to streamline the energy reserve system and emergency response mechanism.

Such a law will help build China into a country that is energy efficient and environmentally friendly through optimizing its energy structure, improving energy efficiency and promoting clean production, and forming an economic growth mode characterized by low input, low energy consumption, low pollution and high efficiency.

The law will also help improve work safety in energy production.

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2006)