BHOPAL, India, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Cotton acreage in India's central state of Madhya Pradesh has crossed last year's levels, raising hopes of better output in the year ending Sept 2010, a senior official of agriculture department said on Monday 3 August.

"Crop condition is good. We are expecting production to go up by a minimum of 10 percent," said D.N. Sharma, director, state agriculture department.

Sowing covered 0.64 million hectare (1.58 million acres) by July 29, up from 0.61 million hectare in the same period last year.

"About 98 percent of sown crop is of Bt cotton variety," a senior officer told Reuters. The state is India's seventh largest producer.

"A good spell of rains after July 12 for 10 days has improved cotton crop prospects in a big way this year," said Shyam Jalgaonkar, Joint Director (Indore division), agriculture department. (Reporting by Ashish Tiwari; Editing by Harish Nambiar)