China's fixed-asset investment in the first half probably grew by around 26 percent from a year earlier, suggesting a pick-up in capital spending, Xinhua News Agency said on Tuesday.

Citing National Bureau of Statistics estimates, the report did not clarify whether it was referring to capital spending in both rural and urban areas, or only that in urban areas. The bureau releases the urban figures on a monthly basis and the overall ones once a quarter.

Urban spending on everything from roads to apartment blocks grew by 25.9 percent from a year earlier in January-May. Spending in both cities and the countryside in the first quarter was up an annual 23.7 percent.

"An overheated investment sector could make economic growth go from the current situation of being relatively fast to one of overheating," Xinhua said, citing the agency.

It did not specifically say that investment was overheating, but pointed to the property sector as one important area where investment showed signs of potentially becoming too fast, in addition to energy-intensive industries and projects funded by local governments.

Xinhua did not suggest any potential fresh tightening measures, but said that if existing measures were properly implemented in the second half, Beijing could achieve its objective of avoiding a rebound in investment growth for 2007.

Separately, the central bank said on Tuesday that it would keep tightening monetary policy to prevent the economy from overheating.