CHINA has imposed a temporary price freeze on key foods and household items to contain inflation and maintain social stability.

The new move bars producers from raising prices without government approval, the National Development and Reform Commission, said yesterday.

Major producers and sellers of instant noodles, cooking oils and dairy produce must seek permission from the nation's top planning agency directly, while others providing basic food items, including grain, pork, beef, mutton and eggs, as well as liquefied petroleum gas, will have to seek approval from provincial governments to raise prices.

"This will not rule out price increases but will counter aberrant price increases legally and reasonably," the NDRC said on its Website.

Since May last year, China's consumer prices, the main gauge of inflation, have been soaring mainly because of the increasing costs of food.

Food prices soared by 18.2 percent in November, pushing overall inflation to 6.9 percent, its highest monthly rate in 11 years, despite a string of fiscal and monetary policies introduced to slow the pace of inflation.

In the first two weeks of January, the price of cooking oil has climbed 58 percent from a year earlier in 36 cities, while the cost of pork, beef and mutton rose 43 percent, 46 percent and 51 percent respectively.

Rising food costs hit China's poor majority hardest. A survey released this month by a government think tank found inflation to be the public's top concern.

"Price increases for necessary items deal a heavy blow to low income households. And some traders try to manipulate the market and further raise prices by hoarding goods," the NDRC said.

"These aberrant price increases have led to social tensions in some places. The State Council thus approves government intervention in the price setting process."

The intervention is confined to basic products directly linked to people's daily lives and it will not affect the normal activities of producers, said the statement.

The price control, which took effect on Tuesday, is temporary, the NDRC said.

On Sunday, the State Council said China would more than triple the maximum fine for companies that collaborate on prices, another move to prevent inflation disrupting economic growth and causing social unrest.

The maximum fine has been raised to one million yuan (US$137,500) from 300,000 yuan, after Premier Wen Jiabao announced a freeze on energy and utility price rises last week.