China will establish a foul weather forecast system to prevent traffic accidents triggered by bad weather on expressways and national highways.

According to a memorandum signed in Beijing Thursday between the Ministry of Communications and the China Meteorological Administration, experimental forecasts will be conducted first along the Beijing-Shenyang and the Beijing-Tianjin-Tanggu expressways.

The two government institutions agreed to share information on road traffic and changes in weather conditions so that timely alarms could be released before foul weather attack.

In rainy season, closer cooperation between the two will be required to report the damage by floods to trunk roads and to take immediate reaction against emergencies.

Zhang Chunxian, Minister of Communications, said that China was suffering increasing losses from traffic jams and accidents triggered by natural disasters and foul weather.

Since the arrival of the year's rainy season, more than 660 roads have been damaged to various extent, causing immediate economic losses of nearly 3.1 billion yuan (US$374 million).

As the country's transportation network keeps sprawling, minimizing the impact of bad weather and natural disasters to secure road safety has become an imminent task, Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 29, 2005)