SHANGHAI, May 26 (AFP) - China's six interest-rate cuts since the start of 1997 have brought heavy losses to the fledgling insurance industry, the official Shanghai News reported Wednesday, citing government sources. Life insurers have been the hardest-hit, it said. The general manager of one company was quoted as saying interest cut-related losses across the sector totalled more than two billion yuan (241 million dollars). "If interest rates continue to fall, the losses will expand," said the report. The China Insurance Regulatory Commission has made control of risk tied to interest rate cuts a top priority and is looking for ways to help the life-insurance sector cut its costs, it said. Analysts say the rate cuts to date have largely failed to stimulate business activity in a deflationary economy slowed by the continued effects of the Asian crisis. Insurers have suffered, because interest return rates are fixed in certain types of policies for terms of 10 years to decades and cannot be altered with changes in bank rates. However, term bank deposits are among only a few low-risk investment options available to them, along with treasury and financial bonds. A Shanghai official with insurer PICC Life told AFP the majority of the losses have resulted from a type of individual life-insurance policy that is no longer sold. Companies stopped selling the policies, which pay out interest on a monthly basis, in November 1997, he said.  