However, neither the government nor the country's state-controlled media mentioned specific policy measures planned under the "stimulus package".

The announcement follows recent moves to help the textile, automobile, and other sectors as the world's deepening economic troubles sap overseas demand for Chinese-made goods.

The plan approved by China's Cabinet would seek to stabilise orders for new ships while curbing capacity expansion in the industry, state radio said.

Financial institutions also would be encouraged to boost credit to the sector, while the government has pledged to maintain existing fiscal supports for the sector through 2012, it said.

It did not detail the nature of that support.

State-run China Central Television said in its nightly news report that the government also would seek to boost demand for Chinese-made vessels, encourage consolidation in the sector, and promote technological upgrading.

China is the world's third-largest ship-building nation, after South Korea and Japan.

China's shipbuilders accounted for 28.8 million deadweight tonnes in 2008, or 29.5 percent of the world's total, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Chinese shipbuilders have been more severely hit than most by the global crisis.

They witnessed a 44-percent decline in new orders in the first 11 months of last year, compared with a drop of 37 percent worldwide, the China Daily reported recently, citing shipping research company Clarkson Research Studies.

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