LONDON, Dec 5 (Reuters)—China's share of the world insurancemarket has quadrupled in the last 10 years and is set for furthergrowth, helped by a strong economy and better regulation,reinsurance broker Aon Benfield said.

With annual life and non-life insurance premiums of $226billion, China accounts for almost four percent of the worldmarket, up from 1 percent in 2001, Aon Benfield said in a reportpublished on Monday.

“Given the still low insurance penetration rate and China'scomparative economic outlook, this share can only be expected togrow,” said Henry To, chief executive of Aon Benfield's Chinaunit.

However, Aon said the development of China's catastropheinsurance market had been slow despite the country's increasingexposure to natural hazards.

This could be remedied by a national natural disaster risktransfer program to be set up under the Chinese regulatoryauthority's latest five-year development plan, the broker said.

Some western insurers attracted by China's strong growthpotential have begun to scale back their presence in the country oreven leave, frustrated by high regulatory hurdles and stiffcompetition, credit rating agency Moody's said last week.

Foreign insurers controlled an “inappreciable” 3.7 percent ofthe Chinese life insurance market, and just 1.1 percent of thenon-life market as of September 2011, Moody's said.