China is to fine-tune its 30-year-old family planning policy, a spokesman for the nation's top population authority says.

But any step taken must serve to maintain a low birth rate while satisfying individual families' desire to have more children, the National Health and Family Planning Commission spokesman said.

China's social and economic development as well as demographic changes will also be considered in relation to any policy changes made, Mao Qun'an said at a regular news conference on Monday.