BEIJING - Despite progress in narrowing the maternal and child health gap between urban and rural areas, China still faces challenges to conquer birth defects as well as infant and young child mortality, a senior official from the Ministry of Health said on Friday.

"Although the mortality rate of children younger than 5 has met the target set in the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations ahead of schedule, it is still very high because of the large population base in China," Fu Wei, deputy director of Women and Children Care and Community Health Department under the health ministry, told a news conference.

China signed the joint declaration in 2000, aiming for a two-thirds reduction in the death rate of children younger than 5 in 2015 compared with the figure in 1990.