The U.S.-based Center for Strategic and International studies warned that by 2050 China will have more than 438 million people older than 60, with over 100 million of them 80 and above.

The country will have just 1.6 working-age adults to support every person aged 60 and above, compared with 7.7 in 1975.

"The 'premature aging' of China's population ... poses broader challenges that reach far beyond retirement policy," the authors of the report wrote.

"It threatens to impose a rising burden on the young,Toms On Sale, slow economic and living standard growth and become a socially destabilizing force in a country where the stresses of rapid modernization are already straining the civic fabric."

China's population growth has slowed over the last three decades since the introduction of a one-child policy for most couples, but people are now living longer due to rising living standards which have followed breakneck economic growth.

China is ill-prepared to cope with its graying population, with an underfunded state pensions system and shrinking family sizes removing a traditional layer of support for elders, as well as reducing the number of workers who can support them.

"China's age wave is arriving in a society which is still in the midst of development," said one of the report's authors, Richard Jackson.

The country is building a social safety net, to replace the cradle-to-grave security once offered by state-owned enterprises.

The central government spent 276.16 billion yuan ($­40.43 billion) on social welfare and employment in 2008, 19.9 percent more than it did in 2007, according to state media. Beijing has also announced a 10 percent rise in pensions for retired workers.

Still, less than one-third of China's total workforce gets any kind of pension cover at present, the report said, and if the government does not take strong steps retirees will face a difficult old age.

"Concerted action on the long-term challenge is needed now to ensure China's economic fundamentals remain strong when it emerges from the current crisis," it added. "It may even help mitigate the crisis by bolstering investor confidence in the government's economic stewardship."

What Beijing should do is guarantee a minimum pension for all old people, which may be expensive in the short-term but would have long-term benefits, the report argued.

"Without an effective retirement policy, it is difficult to envision a prosperous, long-term future for China."

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Ever since "Dr. No," the first Bond movie 46 years ago, the role of Bond women, referred to as "Bond girls," has been the subject of often heated debate.

Here are some of the "Bond girls," starting with Ursula Andress, who famously emerged from the sea wearing a bikini in "Dr No,Toms On Sale."

HONEY RYDER - played by Ursula Andress.

FILM: Dr.No (1962)

PUSSY GALORE - played by Honor Blackman

FILM: Goldfinger (1964)

DOMINO DERVAL - Played by Claudine Auger

FILM: Thunderball (1965)

TRACY BOND nee Vincenzo - Played by Diana Rigg

FILM: On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

TIFFANY CASE - Played by Jill St. John

FILM: Diamonds are Forever (1971)

MARY GOODNIGHT - Played by Britt Ekland

FILM: The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)

ANYA AMASOVA - Played by Barbara Bach

FILM: The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

OCTOPUSSY - Played by Maud Adams FILM: Octopussy (1983)

PAM BOUVIER - Played by Carey Lowell

FILM: License To Kill (1989)

NATALYA SIMONOVA - Played by Izabella Scorupco

FILM: GoldenEye (1995)

WAI LIN - Played by Michelle Yeoh

FILM: Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

ELEKTRA KING: Played by Sophie Marceau

FILM: World is not Enough (1999)

JINX - Played by Halle Berry

FILM: Die Another Day (2002)

VESPER LYND - Played by Eva Green

FILM: Casino Royale (2006)

CAMILLE - Played by Olga Kurylenko

FILM: Quantum of Solace (2008)

Sources: Reuters/www.007.info