SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) - China has given the green light for 60 infrastructure projects worth more than $150 billion as it looks to energise an economy mired in its worst slowdown in three years, fuelling hopes the world's growth engine may get a lift from the fourth quarter.

Shares and steel futures jumped on the plans to build highways, ports and airport runways, among the most ambitious unveiled in China this year, which analysts say signalled growing intent to bolster economic growth as the country's once-a-decade leadership change looms.

China's powerful economic planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, announced approvals for projects that analysts estimate total more than 1 trillion yuan, roughly a quarter of the total size of the massive stimulus package unleashed in response to the global financial crisis.

The announcement comes just before a deluge of economic data due on Sunday that could confirm investors' worst fears that a downswing in the world's second-biggest economy has stretched into a seventh straight quarter.