China's central government plans to spend 12 billion yuan (US$1.76 billion) on rural environment protection in the three years to 2012, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) said in a statement on its website Thursday.

MOF Vice Minister Zhang Shaochun said the ministry will work with the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) in the coming three years to help treat rural pollution, a move expected to benefit 100 million rural population.

With garbage and sewage water exposed in open air, the fragile rural environment in many Chinese villages has aroused attention from the top-level.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged at a State Council meeting on Wednesday that the nation should accelerate pace in solving pollution problems in the rural areas and strengthen rural hygiene work.

To curb the rural pollution, China set up a fund for rural environmental protection in 2008, with a combined 1.5 billion yuan from the central budget earmarked in 2008 and 2009.

The MEP estimated that spurred by the central fund, local governments had added investment of more than 5 billion yuan to support pollution treatment projects in 2,165 villages in the past two years, benefiting more than 13 million rural population.