BEIJING -- President Xi Jinping has stressed the significance of construction, maintenance and operation of rural roads in the country's battle against poverty.

Efforts should be made to build good roads in rural areas and maintain them to ensure a better quality of life for farmers and accelerate agricultural modernization, Xi said ahead of a national transport conference held Monday.

The move to improve rural roads has produced tangible benefits in recent years, bringing more people and wealth to poor regions and rallying community support for the Communist Party of China (CPC), noted Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

Premier Li Keqiang demanded engaging the initiative of local- and community-level officials and rural residents to improve rural road construction, maintenance and operation.

At Monday's conference, transport authorities agreed to focus on prominent problems and improve policies and mechanisms to advance high-quality development of rural roads.

In the past five years, China has seen 1.28 million km of rural roads built or renovated, with 99.24 percent of townships and 98.34 percent of villages connected by asphalt or cement roads.