The rapid growth of Chinese cities has led to "senseless actions" that have "devastated" historical buildings and cultural relics, according to Qui Baoxing, the vice-minister for construction.

He said China's cultural heritage was facing its third round of havoc since the communists took over in 1949, following the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s and the Cultural Revolution, from 1966-76.

"They are totally unaware of the value of cultural heritage," said Mr Qiu, criticising some local officials in an address at a conference in Beijing.

Mr Qiu's unusually blunt comments, reported in the China Daily newspaper, are a rare recognition from a senior central government figure that the hectic pace of urban development in recent years has had a significant impact on the country's architectural heritage.

Over the past decade a number of Chinese cities have seen surges in construction that have often involved razing entire neighbourhoods, some of them full of historically interesting buildings, and replacing them with high-rise apartments and offices. In Beijing the already frenetic urban development has accelerated over the past two years because of preparations for next year's Olympic Games.

Although officials in national and local cultural bureaucracies have regularly criticised the destruction of old buildings, their complaints have often had little impact. This is in part due to the political connections of property developers but also because of the dilapidated state of older buildings, from where residents have sometimes been keen to move.

Mr Qiu said rapid development reflected local officials' "blind pursuit of the large, new and exotic".

"Some officials seem to be altering the appearance of cities with the determination of moving the mountain and altering the water course," he was quoted as saying. "Many cities have a similar construction style. It is like having 1,000 cities with the same appearance."

Speaking at the same event, Tong Mingkang, deputy director of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, criticised some local governments for dismantling historical sites in poor repair and replacing them with copies.

"It is like tearing up a priceless painting and replacing it with a cheap print," he said. If the sites were well preserved, he said, their value would grow substantially.

A number of Chinese cities now have active conservation lobbies, most notably Shanghai where the local government has been persuaded to grant protected status to 632 buildings.

For several years Shanghai officials have argued that preserving older buildings is an important strategy for attracting visitors to the city. However, conservationists complain that a large number of historically interesting buildings are still being destroyed.

In Beijing, officials have long given commitments to preserving traditional buildings but a large number of the city's hutongs - narrow lanes of courtyard houses - have been demolished in recent years as the city has undergone an ambitious development plan.

However, Dongsi Batiao, one such Beijing neighbourhood, last month won a reprieve from destruction after a campaign by residents coupled with an appeal by the city's heritage bureau led to the suspension of plans to redevelop part of the old hutong. It is not clear yet if the development plan will be restarted.

However, while defenders of the older buildings claim that property groups usually seem to gain the upper hand in planning battles, the developers have begun to complain over the past two years about the rising costs of new construction in larger cities, due to higher compensation rates for existing tenants and stricter building requirements.