China will loosen its decades-old one-child policy and abolish a much-criticised labour camp system, its ruling Communist Party said.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the party announced the changes in a policy document on Friday following a key, four-day meeting of party leaders that ended on Tuesday in Beijing.

Under the new family-planning rules, couples can have two children if one of the parents is an only child.

China’s one-child policy currently limits most urban couples to one child and allows two children for rural families if their first-born is a girl.

Other exceptions previously also included allowing two children for parents who are themselves both singletons.

The Chinese government credits the one-child policy introduced in 1980 with preventing hundreds of millions of births and helping lift countless families out of poverty.

Couples who flout the rules face hefty fines, seizure of their property and loss of their jobs.