In a Reuters interview, the World bank's chief of mission to China, David Dollar, said the new programme should see lending to Beijing of between $1 billion to $1.5 billion a year.

"We have a big programme in China, so any change will be gradual but the issues and needs are changing and it makes sense that our assistance programme responds to that," said Dollar, who is based is Beijing.

Some development experts argue the bank's resources would be better spent in needier countries that do not have access to international capital markets as China does.

But Dollar said China's loans generate profit of about $85 million for the World Bank that is funneled into projects in impoverished regions like Africa.

Critics take issue with the bank's long involvement in Chinese infrastructure projects such as ports, power plants and highways, now built by the private sector.

The talks with Beijing, likely to get underway in the next few weeks, highlight a key challenge World Bank chief Paul Wolfowitz faces in his new job -- to keep the bank relevant to rising economic powers like China and India.

Wolfowitz has said the bank must make itself attractive enough to stay involved with such fast-growing countries that are still plagued by poverty.

"China is at a stage where the main contribution of the World Bank is not financial. China can borrow on international capital markets at a lower interest rate than the World Bank charges, so we don't provide any subsidy and we're not particularly attractive financially," said Dollar.