China's urban fixed asset investment rose 29.6 percent in the first four months of 2006 to 1.8 trillion yuan (225 billion dollars), the National Bureau of Statistics said. No numbers for April alone were provided.

The figures -- compared with the government target of 18 percent fixed asset growth for 2006 -- were another indicator for a government struggling to rein in an economy that galloped ahead at 10.2 percent in the first quarter.

They also came as state press reported the central government had decided to enact more measures to curb the sizzling property market.

China's state council, or cabinet, chaired by Premier Wen Jiaobao, decided in a meeting Wednesday to implement stronger tax, credit and land policy measures to push down soaring real estate prices.

"Housing prices are still rising too fast in some major cities," the China Daily quoted a cabinet circular as saying. "Order is yet to be restored in the property market."

The fixed assets numbers released on Thursday showed investment in the property sector rose 21.3 percent in the first four months of the year to 413 billion yuan.

The overall jump in fixed assed investment during the four months was in large part due to provincial spending on major infrastructure projects, which include real estate construction.

According to the statistics bureau, provincial and locally directed projects swelled to 1.6 trillion yuan in the four months, up 31.1 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts said the statistics were almost certain to force Beijing to further clamp down on credit.

"For sure the (fixed-asset investment) growth is very high," said Qu Hongbin, China economist at HSBC in HongKong.

"The main reason is likely the local governments pursuit of high growth along with the huge amount of bank loans being given out.

"In the current circumstances where many industries' production is execessive, the authorities must be very worried."

Qu said the the government would have to tighten monetary policy sooner rather than later, just three weeks after announcing a rise of 27 basis points to 5.85 percent in its one-year benchmark lending rate.

Citigroup economist Huang Yiping said that while the verdict on the impact of last month's interest rate hike was still out, it was likely that China would have to take on more economic cooling measures.

"The question is how much impact we might expect," Huang said.

Stricter lending guidance, increased efforts to dampen the amount of cash flooding the financial system and a faster rate of appreciation for the yuan are potential tools the government could to turn to, Huang said.

Signs of the ramp up in investment levels were clear in April when the government released figures showing fixed asset investment in the first three months hit 27.7 percent.

The National Developmental Reform Commission said then the government had to "strengthen adjustments in fixed asset investment and tighten the throttle on land and credit."

In the figures released on Thursday, investment in the coal sector rose 58.2 percent year-on-year to 20.1 billion yuan in the four months, while in the oil and natural gas sector investment rose 3.7 percent to 31.1 billion yuan.

Steel and the metal mining and processing sector rose 13.1 percent to 59.5 billion yuan.

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