Beijing, March 12 (IANS) Pre-marriage health check-ups should be held as there has been an increase in the congenital defect rate among new born babies, a Chinese official said here Friday.

Wang Yin, deputy to the National People's Congress, said that following the cancellation of compulsory pre-marriage check-ups in 2003, now less people took health checks before getting married and the congenital defect rate of new born babies was on the rise.

According to the health department, nearly 90 out of 10,000 babies in Beijing were born with congenital defects in 1997 and the number increased to about 170 in 2008, Xinhuanet reported.