Pan Shuda, chief engineer of the Environmental Protection Bureau of the Beijing municipal government, said Beijing would be the first city in China to introduce the stringent standards, equivalent to those commonly used in Europe.

He said that from January 1 next year, motor vehicles failing to meet the new standards would not be registered by traffic enforcement departments.

The new standards set by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) for the country's major cities were due to take effect nationwide in 2005.

Compared with the current standards, the new rules would help reduce the emission of nitric oxides and other major pollutants in automobile exhaust by up to 50 percent, Pan said.

From August 1, a sample of a new automobile model set for the Beijing market will have to pass a test authorized by SEPA to make sure it meets the new standards. SEPA will publish a list of models that pass the test.

From January 1, 2003, Beijing's Environmental Protection Bureau would conduct its own selective inspection of mass produced new cars on the market, Pan said.

Cars which failed to meet the new standards would not be allowed to be sold and used in Beijing even if the model had passed the SEPA test.

Automobiles already in use were not subject to the new standards but owners of those vehicles must make sure they were up to related exhaust gas emission standards, said Pan.

Rising incomes and falling automobile prices have led to the number of vehicles on Beijing's roads soaring in recent years.

Statistics show there were more than 1.79 million motor vehicles in the city at the end of June, of which about 1.1 million are privately owned.

( August 2, 2002)