They follow recent announcements of a "baby bonus" and paternity leave as Singapore searches for solutions to reverse a declining birth rate.

Eddie Teo, who heads the government's Working Committee on Marriage and Procreation, sees university hostels as ideal for creating opportunities for young men and women to socialise, the Project Eyeball newspaper reported.

As a result, the education ministry is to build more hostels to encourage young people to interact with the opposite sex, it said.

Hostel life was described in the newspaper as "almost like living together. Only in separate rooms, of course."

Teo has also recommended flexible work hours for civil servants.

They will be free to adjust their hours within the framework of a 42-hour week, as long as there is no lapse in work productivity, the Straits Times reported.

The civil service, Singapore's largest employer, will also allow people with young children to work from home, Teo said, advising employers not to be concerned that staff were not at their desks.

"It's a question of learning to trust that if you don't see the person it doesn't mean that he or she is skiving," he said.

The high number of unmarried women and the small families of those who are married have been described as "grave problems," by Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong.

The Singapore fertility rate has fallen below 1.5 children per woman, well down on the 2.15 figure deemed necessary to replace the population.

On Sunday, Goh announced that fathers in the civil service will be entitled to three days paternity leave, the same as the private sector, to signal that "the responsibility of parenthood does not lie only with the woman."

A week earlier, he unveiled a raft of monetary perks, dubbed the "Baby Bonus" to encourage couples to have children.

Under the scheme the government will contribute S$500 a year into the account of the second child and double its contribution to S$1000 dollars for the third. The payment will stop when the child turns six.

But Goh cautioned against starting a family just to cash in on the rewards being offered.

"The measures that the government is undertaking are not meant to be baits for producing babies. If you decide to raise a family, do so because you want to enjoy the happiness children would bring into your life," he said.

The monetary perks are to help Singaporeans overcome some of the obstacles in getting married and starting a family, Goh said.