Chinese insurance companies reaped a combined premium income of 160.15 billion yuan (20 billion US dollars) in the first quarter of the year, an 8.5 percent rise from the same period last year, the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) said on Saturday.

The country's insurance assets had reached 1.64 trillion yuan by the end of March.

Domestic insurers should seek to boost the yields of their funds, but under the conditions of risk control, CIRC Chairman Wu Dingfu told a forum in Beijing.

He revealed that China's State Council, its cabinet, had given the nod for insurance firms to invest their yuan assets, after converting them into foreign currencies in overseas markets. The move would be launched on a trial basis before June.

Insurance companies are already allowed to invest their foreign exchange holdings in firms listed in New York, London, Hong Kong and other stock exchanges.

China has 93 insurance institutions, and the industry employs 1.8 million people. Wu said an industry with "a big size, sound market operation and functions, a wide service network, sufficient repayment capacities, strong competitiveness and vitality" will take shape by 2010.

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