BEIJING, Feb. 11 (Xinhua) -- China had written off 374 mature debts owed by 49 countries in heavy debt and dire poverty by the end of 2007, sources with the Ministry of Commerce said Monday.

    The countries having benefited from the exemption are from African, Asian, South Pacific and the Caribbean regions, said the Department of Foreign Aid of the ministry, which didn't disclose the value of the debts.

    More than 160 countries from those areas as well as in East Europe and Latin America have obtained free aid, interest-free and preferential loans from the Chinese government since 1950, according to the department.

    The aid and loans went to construction of nearly 2,000 projects in industry, agriculture, transportation, telecommunications, culture and health.

    The Chinese government has been boosting the recipient countries' ability to develop on their own, said the department.

    It noted the number of officials, technicians and management personnel having received training in China added up to 100,000.

    China never used aid as a tool to exert political pressure, Zhai Jun, China's assistant foreign minister, said a few weeks ago, calling criticism on China-African cooperation "unfair and groundless".

    The Chinese government had canceled a total of 10.9 billion yuan of African debt to China, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last May.

    China has sent about 20,000 medical workers to 65 countries and regions since 1963. More than 200 Chinese volunteers have bee dispatched abroad since 2005 to offer services like Chinese teaching, traditional Chinese medical treatment and international rescue, according to the Ministry of Commerce.