China on Sunday announced that four trillion yuan (586 billion dollars) would be spend on infrastructure and other projects to 2010 to help the country weather the global finance crunch.

"China will make the biggest contribution to the world by maintaining the sound and steady development of its own economy," foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters, referring to the package.

Qin declined to answer whether committing so much money at home would lessen China's contributions to any global rescue efforts that may be agreed on, possibly during a world summit on the crisis next week in Washington.

He said the world must remember that China is a huge country with major development challenges of its own.

"From the beginning we have proposed coordinated efforts to overcome this crisis. But first, we should put our own house in order and stabilise our own financial markets," he said.

China's stimulus package calls for tax cuts and increased spending corresponding to about seven percent of its gross domestic product over the next two years.

The package comes amid rapidly worsening predictions for the impact of the financial turmoil on China's export-dependent economy.

Official figures showed that economic growth slowed to 9.0 percent in the third quarter of 2008, the lowest level in more than five years, due mainly to a slowdown in exports.

However, China has the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, at 1.9 trillion dollars, meaning it faces growing calls to play a part in boosting global growth.

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