Foreign families may be able to adopt orphans or abandoned children who are not under State care, a senior adoption official revealed to China Daily in an exclusive interview on Thursday.

Children under State care have been eligible for adoption since the early 1980s, said Zhang Shifeng, who heads the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption. Regulations are being drafted to broaden the category for those eligible for adoption to include "children in plight".

The term refers to orphans who cannot receive basic care from close relatives and children whose parents, for whatever reason, were unable to provide due care, Zhang said.