China may increase assistance to foreign countries to "an appropriate extent" within its ability, as China's national strength grows, Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying said?on Tuesday.

During a press conference on China's foreign aid, Fu said China will not make big changes to its general principles on assistance to other developing countries, but will adjust the structure and fields of specific projects in the future.

Fu said China will promote regional and sub-regional cooperation in foreign aid and allocate its foreign aid resources through platforms such as the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

He said China and the Caribbean states will discuss issues on Chinese foreign aid later this year at the ministerial meeting of the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum.

China has received more than 7 billion U.S. dollars of assistance from foreign countries over the past 30 years, according to the vice minister.

China first began to provide foreign aid in 1950, when it gave material assistance to the DPRK and Vietnam.

By the end of 2009, China had offered aid to 161 countries and more than 30 international and regional organizations, according to a white paper on China's foreign aid published last week.

As the world's largest developing country, China provided 256.29 billion yuan (38.54 billion U.S.dollars) in aid to foreign countries, including 106.2 billion yuan in grants, 76.54 billion yuan in interest-free loans and 73.55 billion yuan in concession loans, according to the white paper.