Experts have called for improvements in China's child protection laws and regulations, citing a recent case of neglect in which two children died of starvation while in their mother's care.

The call came from lawyers speaking at a child protection seminar held in Beijing on Wednesday in response to the starvation of two girls - a 1-year-old and a 3-year-old - by their drug-addict mother in Nanjing, Jiangsu province.

Lu Xun, a lawyer from Beijing Haozhou Law Firm, said China should learn from the experience and practices of child protection in Western countries and improve laws to prevent such a tragedy happening again.

Yang Zhizhu, a professor from China Youth University for Political Sciences, said China's adoption system should be improved so that children from broken homes can be better taken care of.