MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) - Infant mortality in Russia has dropped 31% in the first 10 months of 2006 against the same period last year, the Health and Social Development Ministry said Monday.

"In [the first] 10 months of this year, 11,120 infants died in Russia's maternity hospitals, compared with 16,125 infants in [the first] 10 months of 2005," a ministry official said. "Early neonatal mortality has been reduced by that number."

Olga Sharapova said this testifies to the improved quality of obstetrics in Russia, because, she said, the infant mortality rate is the main indicator of the situation in the maternity care system.

She said the ministry is trying to prevent a reduction of funds to finance obstetric care in Russian regions.

Russia's population has been in steady decline since the market reforms and economic hardships of the 1990s, leading many experts to worry about a demographic crisis in the near future.

In his annual address to the nation in May, President Vladimir Putin said the country's population was falling by about 700,000 each year, and pledged financial incentives for women with larger families.