BEIJING — China's housing authorities pledged to speed up efforts to renovate dilapidated rural houses on Dec 23 as the deadline to eradicate absolute poverty by 2020 approaches.

China will ensure that renovation work on 1.35 million dilapidated rural homes will be completed in 2020, Wang Menghui, minister of housing and urban-rural development, said at a work conference.

By the end of November, construction had begun on 97.9 percent of the target homes, according to Wang.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the country has supported 17.94 million rural households to renovate their homes and improved garbage and sewage treatment, bringing continuous improvements to the rural living environment.

In 2020, the government will continue to focus on enhancing housing conditions and the living environment in rural areas, further building new types of rural homes and accelerating garbage treatment, Wang said.

At the annual Central Economic Work Conference held in December, poverty reduction was made one of the "three tough battles" for the country in 2020.