CHINA'S insurance market expanded 24 percent to 253.2 billion yuan (US$33 billion) in premiums in the first four months of 2007 from a year earlier, the regulator said.

Premiums from life policies rose 19 percent to 164.1 billion yuan, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission said in a statement posted on its Website today. Property and casualty cover generated premiums of 71 billion yuan, up 43 percent, Bloomberg reported.

Wu Dingfu, the regulator's chairman, is trying to ease rules to allow insurance companies to invest their funds more freely in the stock market to improve their returns. Preparations are under way to lift a ban that limits insurers' direct investment in the stock market to 5 percent of assets, he said April 12.

Total assets held by China's insurers were 2.43 trillion yuan. Insurers had 758.9 billion yuan in bank deposits, up from 634.4 billion yuan in the first three months, and 1.47 trillion yuan in stocks, bonds and corporate debt, up from 1.41 trillion yuan in the first three months, the regulator said.