Rural couples in Shanghai, Tianjin and five provinces have been entitled to have a second child if either of them is the only child of their families, the country's deputy population planning chief and a lawmaker confirmed on Tuesday.

"As per changes in demographic, economic and social landscapes, we have improved our policies regarding child bearing in recent years," Wang Pei'an, vice-minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, said on the sidelines of the ongoing session of the National People's Congress, which opened on Tuesday in Beijing.

In his Government Work Report at the opening of the legislature's annual meeting on Tuesday morning, Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to "progressively improve the government population policy" and "adhere to the basic State policy on family planning".