The Qinhuangdao Port in Hebei Province, China's largest coal port, is this year expected to handle nearly 200 million tons of the fuel, once its six new berthing terminals are running at full capacity.

Completed last year, the berths passed an acceptance test organized by the Ministry of Communications on Sunday.

The multi-billion yuan expansion project will boost the port's annual handling capacity by 65 million tons to 193 million tons for coal transportation.

The ministry said it would ease the bottleneck in coal transportation from inland areas of North China to East and South China, and satisfy demand from the booming coastal areas.

In addition, the ministry plans to speed up the expansion of six other ports in northern China, namely Tianjin, Tangshan and Huanghua in Hebei Province, Qingdao and Rizhao in Shandong Province and Lianyungang in Jiangsu Province.

Although a specific plan for the ports' development has yet to be agreed, Vice-Minister of Communications Xu Zuyuan said it was a strategic necessity.

"The pattern of transporting coal from west to east and north to south in China will not change for some time," he said at a meeting on Sunday.

The majority of coal used for power generation in the Yangtze River and Pearl River delta areas comes from these seven ports. However, in 2003, both regions suffered electricity shortages because bottlenecks at ports and on the rail network led to coal deliveries being delayed.

The railway ministry acted quickly and expanded Daqin Railway, a major coal channel from North China's Shanxi Province to Qinhuangdao.

Shouldering one-fifth of all the coal carried by trains in the country, the railway carried 250 million tons in 2006, and expects that figure rise to 300 million tons this year.

The expansion of Qinhuangdao port, which was approved in 2005, will support the Daqin Railway. Its largest berthing terminal can host vessels of up to 150,000 tons, which is "a leading level in the world" said an insider.

Work is also underway on the construction of Caofeidian Port on Bohai Bay, which will have the capacity to transport 200 million tons of coal per year, to handle the surplus from the Daqin Railway.