Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan said on Thursday that China would improve its evaluation of energy consumption per unit of GDP and emission of major pollutants.

Statistics concerning the energy and environmental sectors did not cover enough indices, said Zeng after hearing reports of the National Bureau of Statistics on last year's work.

Figures from these two sectors were not released in a timely manner either, he said.

Zeng said China would improve statistics collection on energy production, circulation and consumption this year to gain a better understanding of local governments' work on cutting energy use.

China would also continue with reforms on statistics collection, said Zeng.

After many local governments were found to have supplied fake GDP figures, the Chinese central government decided to take back the right to calculate the GDP of local regions.

According to the bureau, provincial survey teams have been put under direct leadership of the NBS so that they will not encounter interference from local governments.

(Xinhua News Agency January 19, 2007)