China will keep rare earth export quotas for 2012 at this year's levels, it said on Tuesday, a move that will ease overseas worries about the supply of 17 crucial elements used in high-tech manufacturing. China accounts for more than 95 percent of the global output of rare earths, which are used in the electronics, defense and renewable energy industries.

Beijing imposed an export quota of 30,184 tonnes this year, down only marginally from 30,258 tonnes in 2010, but still enough to stoke concern in the United States and elsewhere that it was seeking to strengthen its chokehold on global supplies. The government said overall export quotas for the whole of 2012 would remain flat from 2011 "in order to guarantee international market demand and keep rare earth supplies basically stable".

The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said the first tranche of rare earths export quotas for next year had been set at 10,546 tonnes, but that figure only included those enterprises that had passed a series of stringent environmental inspections. The first batch of quotas consists of 9,095 tonnes of light rare earths and 1,451 tonnes of heavy rare earths.