China's national pension fund, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), is seeking Cabinet approval to invest billions of dollars in foreign private equity funds this year, sources told Reuters on Monday.

The NSSF is working on a formal proposal with the finance ministry and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, which also supervises the pension fund, to detail its plans, said the sources who had been briefed on the matter.

"The goal and the path is very clear while the only question is when it can win the final approval as it does need time to fix all these important details," said one of the sources, adding the finance ministry agreed in principle to let the plan go forward.