"Have a couple of children, three if you can," Reuters quoted Lee as saying in unprepared remarks during his National Day Rally Speech last weekend.

The National Day Rally Speech is the Singaporean equivalent of the annual State of the Union address, delivered by the U.S. president to Congress.

Lee had to cover a great deal of ground.

His spoke of the continued need for Singapore to restructure its economy to maintain its competitiveness, as well as his aim to open up Singapore's cloistered society to greater freedom of expression.

Extending an apparent olive branch to Beijing, Lee warned Taiwan against pursuing independence from China, which regards it as a renegade province, saying that Taiwan would be devastated in any conflict. China scolded Lee for visiting Taiwan shortly before taking office.

But Lee's most concrete policy proposals concerned the issue of procreation.

Unlike China, India or the Philippines, whose rapidly growing populations serve as both reservoirs of cheap labor and of poverty, Singapore's own birth rate is declining.

Lee, the eldest son of Singapore's founding prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, announced a series of new measures to encourage couples to have children.

The mandatory maternity leave, for example, will be increased to 12 weeks from eight, he said, while the so-called "baby bonus" the government pays parents who have a third and fourth child - which ranges from roughly $5260 to $10,525 - would also be given to first- time parents and those having a fourth child.

"We are very happy about these initiatives," said Braema Mathi, president of the Association of Women for Action Research in Singapore.

"We hope all these are little steps toward really bringing things more into perspective, what really matters and why it should matter to us."

Singapore's baby deficit is partly due to polices adopted after independence to curb the country's population growth. In the mid- 1980s, the government reversed course and rolled out programs and information campaigns designed to encourage marriage and parenthood.

Despite its efforts, Singapore's birth rate fell to a record low of 1.26 per woman last year, well below the 2.1 necessary to keep the population steady. Marriages dropped 5 percent; divorces rose to a record.

Many young people cite the high cost of raising children and the impact on their lifestyles for why they are waiting longer to marry and have children.

But evidence is growing that Singapore's race to prosperity has simply left no time for romance.

"People are stressed out and focused on their work," said Gerrie Lim, author of "Invisible Trade," a book on prostitution in Singapore. "When do you have time to have sex, or put yourself in the frame of mind for it?" he asked.

Some economists say Singapore's population drive is not entirely about maintaining the labor force. Immigration is managing to make up for the empty beds in the maternity wards, they say.

"The real issue is political," said Manu Bhaskaran, director and head of economic research at the Centennial Group consultancy in Singapore. "You can't just have a country that's like a bus interchange. That's not a socially cohesive nation."

Yet the number of foreigners as a proportion of the population has been steadily rising, from one in every nine people in 1990 to one in four today.

Attracting "foreign talent," as officials here refer to immigrant professionals, is part of the motivation behind efforts to loosen Singapore's strict controls, as is retaining local talent. Many Singaporeans still aspire to emigrate given sufficient funds.

Lee has in the past called for a society more open and tolerant, fulfilling for Singaporeans and foreigners alike.

In the speech Sunday, Lee said rules would be lifted that require a police permit to hold meetings indoors, provided they do not touch on issues of race or religion. Lee also said that rules governing the use of a designated "Speakers' Corner" in a park downtown would also be eased.

"It's a good step forward, but I wouldn't think it's a substantial change," said Sinapan Samydorai, president of the Think Center, a local organization focusing on human rights and freedom of expression.
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