China decides to end decades-long one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children for the first time for 36 years.

China’s ruling Communist Party is said to have agreed to lift its more than three-decade-old draconian policy as President Xi Jinping rolled out his blueprint to manage the economy’s shift to slower, more balanced growth.

The party’s decision-making Central Committee approved plans to allow all couples in China to have two children,  at the end of a four-day party gathering in Beijing.

The policy was first brought in  in 1979, to reduce the country's birth rate and slow the population growth rate.

However, the policy led to concerns over China's ageing population.

China’s Communist rulers credit their policy with preventing 400 million births but it has also been blamed for millions of forced abortions.

The UN estimates that by 2050 China will have nearly 440 million over-60s.