BEIJING - China aims to expand its foreign trade by around 10 percent year-on-year in 2012, a much slower growth from 2011 as the country faces a "grim situation" in boosting exports, an official with the country's top economic planner said Saturday.

"We expect more difficulties in foreign trade and the export situation will be grim in 2012, especially in the first half of the year," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), at a forum here.

China's foreign trade surged 22.5 percent in 2011 from a year earlier to $3.64 trillion, customs figures show.