China will seek a path of environmental protection featuring "low cost, high efficiency, less carbon-emission and sustainability," the environmental protection minister said Thursday.

China would seek to bolster its large-scale economic activities at the price of minimum environmental degradation and maintain a coordinated development of economy and environmental protection, said Zhou Shengxian.

He said the government would increasingly strengthen its environmental protection measures and push forward long-term and sustainable development.

The government had invested heavily in urban wastewater treatment, closed down polluting thermal power plants, and eliminated outdated or backward iron, concrete and steel production facilities, he said.

More than 72 percent of China's urban sewage was treated last year, up from 52 percent in 2005, according to figures published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection Thursday.

From 2006 to 2009, authorities closed down polluting thermal power plants with a total capacity of more than 60 million kilowatts and eliminated outdated iron factories with a total productivity of almost 82 million tonnes, according to the ministry.

It said authorities also shut down outdated steel plants with a total capacity of more than 60 million tonnes and concrete factories with a total capacity of more than 214 million tonnes from 2006 to 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2010)