Japan will give aid worth US$7 million to a project to monitor acid rain and sandstorms in China.

Chinese Vice Minister of Commerce Yi Xiaozhun and Japanese Ambassador to China Miyamoto Yuji on Wednesday signed an exchange of notes in which Japan agreed to donate 793 million Japanese yen (US$7.2 million) for the project.

The project, covering 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, includes 34 acid rain monitoring stations and 16 sandstorm monitoring stations.

The Japanese government has already given aid to build 100 urban environmental protection networks in China. It will provide facilities to monitor acid rain and sandstorms and share data with China.

More than half the 696 Chinese cities and counties monitored had experienced acid rain, said a report released in August by the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

The project would boost the Chinese government's ability to collect accurate data to tackle environmental problems, and to improve the environment across East Asia, said a spokesman for China's Ministry of Commerce.

(Xinhua News Agency December 21, 2006)