It would be better if lending by Chinese banks was not on such a large scale, Premier Wen Jiabao said in an interview broadcast on Sunday.

Premier Wen said that the overall lending situation had improved in the second half of the year, when banks dramatically slowed their pace of credit issuance after a record surge in the first half.

He was speaking in an interview carried on the central government's website (www.gov.cn).

Chinese bank are on course to lend an unprecedented 9.5 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) this year, and the market expects new loans to fall to about 7.5 trillion yuan next year.

($1=6.826 Yuan)

(Reporting by Zhou Xin and Simon Rabinovitch; Editing by Lucy Hornby)