Officials in a South Korean city are so concerned about the country's plummeting birthrate that they have decided to play matchmaker at a government-sponsored mass blind date.

Mass blind dates are common in South Korea, but the city of Asan is believed to be the first city government to play Cupid.

"Matchmaking is no longer a personal business, it's the duty of the nation," Yu Yang-Sun, a municipal official organising the recent event, told AFP in the city 50 miles south of Seoul.

"Newborn babies are hardly seen here these days. If the young grow older unmarried and produce no kids, the nation will no longer have the basic human resources to sustain itself."

Asan's birthrate is 1.08, much lower even than the low national average, according to Ko Bun-Ja, one of Mr Yu's deputies who is helping organise the event.

After five hours of small talk, 12 of the 40 people present, all in their twenties and thirties, had decided to keep dating - much to the delight of city officials hearing the distant chime of wedding bells.

After years of promoting family planning in the crowded nation of 48.6 million, South Korea in recent years has become increasingly alarmed at the prospect of an ageing society - with a huge pensions bill and too few workers to sustain economic growth.

The government is increasing the number of state-sponsored nursery schools and providing more financial support - such as tax breaks or subsidised baby-sitting - for married couples who start families.

Cash gifts are sometimes provided for newborns.

But the birthrate remained near the world's lowest at 1.19 last year. Fears are growing that the population will start shrinking within a decade.

"It is a quasi-emergency situation," Jeon Jae-Hee, Minister of Health, Welfare and Family Affairs, told Chosun Ilbo newspaper recently.

"If the low birthrate continues, the nation will no longer be able to exist, with all four state insurance systems set to malfunction."