China saw improved urban air quality in 2003, with more cities up to the national air quality standard of Grade II than the previous year, said a senior official of China State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

Zhu Guangyao, deputy director of the SEPA, Thursday released China's environmental quality communiqué of 2003 at a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council.

Zhu said that in 2003, of the 340 cities monitored, 142 cities recorded urban air quality of Grade II or better, accounting for 41.7 percent of the total, an increase of 7.9 percent over the previous year.

He said the improved urban air quality also resulted in a 4.7 percent decrease of cities with the urban air quality worse than Grade III.

The communiqué said particulate matter remained as the main pollutant affecting the country's urban air quality. The concentration of particulate matter exceeded the national standard of Grade II in 54.4 percent of the cities.

Last year, Chinese cities with serious sulfur dioxide pollution were mainly located in Shanxi, Hebei and Inner Mongolia in northern China, Henan and Hunan provinces in central China, northwestern Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, and Guizhou and Sichuan provinces and Chongqing municipality in the southwest, said the communiqué.

According to the communiqué, among the 340 cities monitored, 64 were located in sulfur dioxide control zones, 40.6 percent of which had a sulfur dioxide concentration reaching Grade II and 116 cities were in acid rain control zones, 74.1 percent of which had a sulfur dioxide concentration reaching Grade II.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2004)