Premeir Wen Jiabao on Sunday called for intensified and consistent efforts to reduce poverty in China's poor areas. Wen made the urge when he joined a panel discussion with deputies to the Third Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) from southwest China's Guizhou Province. Wen noted that the poverty relief work is an uphill journey since the country's impoverished population are mostly resided in the ecologically vulnerable areas, and are apt to return to poverty in face of natural disasters, even though they have been lifted out of poverty. 