China's foreign direct investment (FDI) grew 12 percent to 31.9 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of the year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said on Thursday.

A total of 18,683 foreign-funded ventures were approved by the ministry from January to June, down 5.4 percent year-on-year.

China used 6.63 billion U.S. dollars of FDI in June, a year-on-year increase of 22 percent, compared with 8.6 percent in May and 5.5 percent in April.

"The country is still a popular destination for overseas capital," said ministry spokesman Yao Shenhong.

Manufacturing, real estate and commercial service sectors all attract FDI. Analysts predicted FDI would exceed 60 billion U.S. dollars in 2007.

The top ten sources of investment to the Chinese mainland are Hong Kong, British Virgin Islands, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, the United States, Cayman Islands, Samoa, Taiwan and Mauritius. They accounted for 86 percent of the total FDI.

China used 63 billion U.S. dollars in FDI last year, up five percent from 2005's 60.3 billion U.S. dollars, according to MOC figures.