Skirting the Google controversy, China today claimed that there are 384 million netizens in the country making it the best net savvy country in the world with web users enjoying "full freedom".

By the end of 2009 the number of netizens in China had reached 384 million, 618 times that of 1997 with an annual increase of 31.95 million users, a white paper published by Chinese government said today stressing that stressing the guarantee of citizens' freedom of speech on the Internet.

The white paper said that the Internet had reached 28.

9 per cent of the total population by the end of 2009, higher than the world average.

Its accessibility will be raised to 45 per cent of the population in the coming five years. There were 3.23 million websites running in China last year, which was 2,152 times that of 1997.

Of all the netizens, 346 million used broadband and 233 million used mobile phones to access the Internet.

They had moved on from dialling the access numbers to broadband and mobile phones, it said.

"These statistics make China among the top of the developing countries in developing and popularising the Internet," Xinhua quoted the paper as saying.

In apparent reference to the controversy over Google which winded up its operations in main land China and moved to Hong Kong complaining of intrusive censorship of its content, specially relating to dissidents, the white paper said "Chinese citizens fully enjoy freedom of speech on the Internet".

Over 80 per cent of China's websites provided electronic bulletin service. And there are over 1 million BSs and some 220 million bloggers in China.

According to a sample survey, over 66 per cent of Chinese netizens frequently place postings to discuss various topics, and to fully express their opinions and represent their interests. .