The country's leaders demonstrated their commitment to energy conservation on Monday by attending a conference in Beijing dressed only in their shirt-sleeves.

Broadcast on national prime time news, the meeting, chaired by President Hu Jintao, featured a host of high-profile figures, almost all of whom were wearing light-colored shirts.

"The scene was a sharp contrast to previous meetings, which invariably featured a sea of formal black suits," Huang Wenqing from Beijing, said.

The move followed a call made earlier this month by members of the State Council for office workers to dress casually in a bid to save electricity.

The call followed a cabinet order that the temperature of China's public buildings must not rise above 26 C in summer.

The order to cut energy use applies to schools, office buildings, supermarkets, restaurants, shopping malls, government agencies and private owners of public buildings.

Fan Xuecheng, a cabinet official in charge of supervising energy conservation in government bureaux, said air conditioners account for about 30 to 50 percent of the total power consumption of office buildings in summer.

"So there remains the huge task of controlling energy use in the summer," Fan said.

At least 300 million kWh of electricity and 150 million yuan (US$19.7 million) would be saved if air conditioners in Beijing's public buildings were set to 26 C, the People's Daily Online said.

(China Daily June 27, 2007)