The increased number of projects under construction this year is making monitoring and controlling the environment a tougher job, a Chinese environmental official said Thursday.

"The conflict between short-term economic development and environmental monitoring will be sharper," said Zhang Lijun, Deputy Minister of Environmental Protection, at a national meeting on environmental law enforcement.

Some local governments might compromise environmental standards when approving projects and intervene in law enforcement for economic growth. Then there are some firms that would sacrifice the environment and discharge sewage illegally to seek profits, he said.

"China will put the reduction of pollution and emissions from enterprises at the center of environmental law enforcement this year," Zhang said.

In 2008, 956 firms were shut down, and 1,112 had production suspended for failing to control pollution, he said.

The ministry ordered another 1,012 factories to control pollution last year, which meant they must meet certain requirements by certain deadlines, he added.

Since the 4-trillion-yuan economic stimulus package (US$585 billion) was announced last November, the ministry had approved projects worth more than 970 billion yuan by the end of February. More than 280 billion yuan was to be invested in infrastructure projects.

(Xinhua News Agency March 27, 2009)