China unveiled new steps Friday to cool rapidly rising food prices, saying it will boost farm subsidies and curb industrial use of corn after data showed inflation at near decade-high levels despite a slew of earlier measures.

        Beijing also will try to boost grain production by paying more for wheat and rice, the country's planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission, announced. It promised to take steps to increase supplies of grain, meat and cooking oil. December's inflation rate was 6.5 percent compared with the year-earlier period, down only slightly from November's 6.9 percent, the highest rate in 11 years, the government said Thursday. December's food price rise was not announced, but November's rate was 18.2 percent.

      Food prices have been climbing at double-digit annual rates since mid-2007, due mostly to shortages of pork and grain. Communist leaders are worried about possible political tensions because the rises hit China's poor majority hard.

      The government will "increase the minimum purchase price for grain and wheat and make progress in raising the standard of subsidies paid to grain farmers in order to motivate them to produce more," the NDRC said on its Web site. It gave no financial details. Regulators also will "seriously control the development of industrial use of corn," the statement said, without giving details.

      Corn can be used to produce ethanol, a vehicle fuel, but Chinese leaders worry that industrial demand might raise the price of such food crops. The government said earlier it would curb their use for fuel in order to keep consumer prices down. The inflation spike is especially sensitive ahead of the Lunar New Year in February, when households stock up on groceries for banquets and to feed visitors during the most important family holiday of the year.

       Beijing has taken a series of steps in recent months, raising aid to pig farmers, curbing grain exports and barring price increases by producers without official permission. This week, the price freeze was extended to fertilizer to cushion the blow on farmers. Food prices in 2007 rose by 12.3 percent for the full year, while the cost of pork, China's staple meat, rose 48.3 percent, according to the government.
       Inflation is expected to stay high through 2008, with analysts forecasting a full-year figure of up to 5 percent.

        National Development and Reform Commission (in Chinese): http://www.ndrc.gov.cn