The blaze, which has raged in the region for days, has been controlled with the help of a 2,100-kilometre long fire-prevention belt built in 1996, according to sources with the State Forestry Administration (SFA).

"Some 400-kilometres of the border between China and Mongolia have remained peaceful thanks to the 100 to 200 metres wide fire protection belt, where 3,500 Chinese forest firefighters have been keeping their eyes on the changing blazes across the border for days," the SFA's latest report, released yesterday, stated.

Wang Zhibao, the SFA's top official and other senior fire-control experts were also on duty yesterday, urging firefighters in Inner Mongolia to increase their efforts to hold back the dangerous fire outside China and prevent damage.

"By yesterday, only one blaze between Xilingol and Xing'an leagues of Inner Mongolia was posing a threat to forests inside China," the sources confirmed.

Inner Mongolian firefighters and police by yesterday morning had put out most of raging forest and grass fire that started in the Republic of Mongolia, local sources said.

Casualties and economic losses are still unknown, but no forestry police were seriously injured, a police source said.

The fire, which began across the border on May 4, rode into Inner Mongolia on north winds, of force 6, at noon on Saturday.

About 850 forestry police and more than 2,000 local firefighters helped fight it.

The major fire, once burning over stretches as long as 150 kilometres, was extinguished, and remaining spot fires were controlled thanks to 40 hours of combat, a report from the Inner Mongolia Forestry Police said.

When the fire firstspread to China, to the Xilingol League of Inner Mongolia,80 forestry police members deployed in the area had put out it at 7:30 pm the same day, the police report said.

On the morning of May 7, the fire in Mongolia again entered Inner Mongolia. Some 500 police officers were soon sent to the fire site, where they tried to divide the blazes and eradicate them one at a time.

The complicated topography of grasslands mixed with forests may have slowed efforts to put out the fire, an official from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region's Forestry Bureau added.

On the night of May 7, norther winds of force 7 sent another fire into the Xing'an League of Inner Mongolia, and 270 forestry police members fought nine hours to curb the spread of one fire while putting out another one totally.

(China Daily)