MANILA - CHINA is getting outside help for a project to stop the alarming spread of deserts in its western interior that causes siltation of the Yellow River, the Asian Development Bank said on Saturday.

Manila-based ADB said it will help Beijing design a project to restore the severely degraded drylands of Gansu and Shaanxi provinces, as well as Xinjiang autonomous region, which together cover 40 per cent of the country.

'Land degradation is a critical environmental problem in all three project jurisdictions,' an area that once hosted the ancient Silk Road trading route between Asia and Europe, a bank statement said.

The plateau that covers most of Shaanxi and eastern Gansu is the source of fine, wind-blown soil that gives the Yellow River its distinctive colouring downstream and creates problems of sedimentation, it added.

Meanwhile 'shelter-belt green areas' are needed in the Xinjiang desert to prevent the shifting of the desert sands.

The bank said it will provide an 800,000-dollar (S$1.14 million) technical assistance grant that would help China design 'an investment project for sustainable use of natural resources in the project area'.

The region has a rapidly growing population that puts more stress on the ecosystem, it added. -- AFP