Beijing had 2.87 million motor vehicles at the end of 2006, an increment of 370,000 over the previous year, according to government statistics.

That is equivalent to 1000 new vehicles every day in a city that is anxious to maintain its quota of blue-sky days.

More than 2 million of the vehicles are cars, according to the Beijing Municipal Traffic Management Bureau.

December 2006 added 36,852 new vehicles to the streets, a bureau spokesman said.

The number of motor vehicles in Beijing has risen steeply in recent years, with more than 300,000 added to Beijing's polluted streets every year.

About 1,000 applications for new license plates are handled every day in the bureau's seven registration offices, the official said.

The number of motor vehicles in Beijing will top 3 million before June at the current speed of growth, he said. Currently, 4.24 million people in Beijing hold driving licenses, he added.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2007)