Shanghai, China ? China on Tuesday launched major annual war games in Inner Mongolia, pitting 16,000 troops against each other in a mock battle observed by military officers from a record 24 nations.

Code-named “North Sword 2005,” the exercise was being held at the sprawling Zhurihe training base amid dry grasslands about 310 miles northeast of Beijing, the Shanghai Daily newspaper and other official media reported.

Now in at least their fourth year, the exercises mark a major push toward integrated training involving the army, air force and other branches of the military in battlefield conditions.

The Xinhua News Agency said the exercises posed a “blue army” engaging in a lightening two-pronged attack on a “red army.” The mock assault involved hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles, more than 100 artillery pieces and a helicopter squadron, it said.

It called the exercise an “unrehearsed experimental confrontation drill” involving airborne and armored brigades with no preordained outcome.

“What the foreign observers see and hear is entirely the actual situation on the People’s Liberation Army’s exercise field,” it said, using the formal name for China’s military.

Forty foreign military personnel were on hand for the exercise, Xinhua said, saying they represented the largest number of nations invited to watch the war games since Beijing began allowing such observers in 2002. They included officers from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Australia, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

“It will help our practical exchanges, and enhance our mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation between China’s military and foreign militaries in terms of military training,” Qin said at a regular briefing.

China has vigorously stepped-up training of its 2.5 million-member armed forces in the past five years, focusing on Taiwan, the self-governing island Beijing claims as its own territory.

Chinese soldiers uncover a military vehicle in disguise Tuesday during the exercise code-named North

With the settling of border disputes with Russia and Central Asian states, Beijing has been able to save money and manpower formerly deployed on its northern and eastern flanks and focus on its coastal regions.

Rapid economic growth in recent years also has led to double-digit increases in budgets for the People’s Liberation Army.

The military has been steadily trimming its vast but poorly trained troops and stressing high-tech warfare. It has ditched Mao Zedong’s strategy of “People’s war,” which emphasized using rural guerrilla forces.

At the same time, the PLA is reaching out to Russia, France, Pakistan and others with joint training missions emphasizing both humanitarian and war-fighting missions.

The invitations to foreign military observers, according to state media reports citing military leaders, reflect China’s growing confidence in its forces, as well as a desire for more exchanges with other countries’ militaries.