China's transport minister said on Thursday that he hopes to have ­regulations issued on the use of mobile apps to book private cars within the first half of 2015, State media ­reported, amid doubts over the legal status in China of Uber and similar services.

In January, China's Ministry of Transport banned taxi-hailing apps such as Uber Technologies Inc and local rivals Kuaidi Dache and Didi Dache, which announced a merger on February 14, from employing cars and drivers without taxi licenses in a bid to regulate the rapidly growing sector.

The Ministry of Transport has finished evaluating opinions on regulating private drivers, and will seek public comment after China's parliamentary session, which will conclude on March 15, China National Radio quoted Minister of Transport Yang Chuantang as saying.

"I'm hopeful [the regulations] will be published within the first half of the year," Yang said.

January's ban hit Uber and its ­rivals just weeks after Chinese Internet firm Baidu Inc invested an undisclosed amount for an undisclosed stake in San Francisco-based Uber.

Since then, the status of Uber in China and the private car-hailing functions of taxi-hailing apps Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache have been uncertain.

Didi is backed by social networking and gaming firm Tencent Holdings and Kuaidi by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding.

Uber, Didi and Kuaidi were not immediately available for comment. Baidu declined to comment.

Private car services have a positive effect on the transport market, said Yang, according to a separate report from the Xinhua News Agency.

But there are currently private car services whose private cars are operating illegally, the responsibility of the operators isn't clear and passengers' safety and legal rights are not protected, creating a taxi market with unfair competition and other issues, Xinhua cited Yang as saying.