Huo Xiandan, deputy director-general of the ministry's Legislation and Legal Education Department, said education in law schools will focus on both the law and expertise in other fields, including economics and advanced technology.

There should be at least 30,000 such legal professionals, including 1,000 to 5,000 that are capable of providing international legal services, Friday-published China Daily quoted Huo as saying.

Huo, whose department provides guidelines for legal education across China, called on those who have finished undergraduate courses in fields other than law to go on to study in law schools, so that there will be legal professionals who are proficient in both the law and other fields, the paper said.

China now has some 110,000 lawyers working in nearly 9,500 law firms.

The issue of high-calibre legal professionals has become acute as lawyers in China will now face fiercer market competition following China's promise made upon entering the WTO to lift the geographical and quantitative limitations on foreign law firms within one year.

Law schools have gained increasing popularity among the public in the past two decades, complementing the nation's attention to the policy of the rule of law, according to the paper. However, most of China's legal professionals have received an education that focuses almost completely on the law, making educators and law experts concerned that this will put Chinese lawyers at a disadvantage in competition with their foreign counterparts, who usually specialize in certain types of cases.

Xu Xianming, president of the China University of Political Science and Law, said the influx of foreign law firms has put forward new requirements for China's law-school education and the goal of education is to train lawyers who are competitive on the international market.

Xu's university has already started new training schemes that focus on the students' knowledge of international relations, the paper said.