China's top legislature, or the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), has approved 13 international conventions on environmental protection and enacted 26 laws in this respect over the last 20 years.

The figures were released from an on-going international forum on environmental protection legislation and sustainable development opened in Beijing on Sunday, sponsored by the NPC's Environment and Resources Protection Committee.

Mao Rubai, chairman of the NPC's Environment and Resources Protection Committee, said China would further improve the legislation on environmental protection in the future so as to promote sustainable development.

He noted that the legislation objectives will be shifted from the protection of certain aspects of the environment to the protection of the whole ecological system.

Recycling economy, biological diversity, resources saving and poisonous waste disposal will become the legislation focus in the future, Mao said.

Officials from a dozen countries including China, the United Nations, the World Bank, the Asia Development Bank, the Republic of Korea, the United States, Japan, Britain, Germany and Australia, attended the forum.

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2005)