BEIJING, Jan 7 (Reuter) - China said on Sunday it wanted more foreign investment in its once secret gold industry and offered the bait of annual profit rates of up to 30 percent.

"Foreign investors are likely to edge into China's gold prospecting and processing for the first time," the China Daily quoted Cui Dewen, deputy director of the gold bureau, as saying.

"Foreign investment in the gold industry will be handled according to international norms," he said.

In 1995 China produced 105 tonnes of gold, making it the sixth biggest producer in the world, after South Africa, the United States, Australia, Russia and Canada.

Beijing published the gold output figure for the first time last December 29 as part of an effort to attract more foreign capital and technology into this capital-short sector.

Only one foreign venture, with investment from Canada in a mine in Shandong province, has been approved so far.

China's total gold resources were between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes, of which about 4,000 tonnes were in central and western areas such as Gansu and Qinghai provinces and the Xinjiang region, the newspaper said.

The profit rate of the gold industry in China was between 20 and 30 percent, it said.

Of current output, about 80 percent was in eastern provinces such as Shandong, Henan, Hebei, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Jilin, and the government wanted to encourage more exploration in the centre and west of the country, it said.