UPDATE 1-China to keep up targeted energy-efficiency drive

Published 09/14/2010, 12:22 AM
Updated 09/14/2010, 12:24 AM

* China eyes targeted energy-efficiency, anti-pollution steps

* Beijing would buy more from U.S. if allowed, planner says

* China confident of keeping rise in CPI below 3 pct in 2010

TIANJIN, China, Sept 14 (Reuters) - China will introduce stricter rules to reduce industrial pollution and increase energy efficiency, which will remain core objectives over the next five years, a senior economic planning official said on Tuesday.

Zhang Xiaoqiang, a vice-chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said the drive against sectors that consume a lot of energy and spew out pollution would be targeted.

"We need to avoid one-size-fits-all regulations," he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of the World Economic Forum in this northern port city.

Zhang was speaking as the ruling Communist Party completes the draft of China's five-year plan, its twelfth, covering the period 2011-2016.

Cutting the amount of energy needed to produce each unit of GDP by 20 percent was a cornerstone of the current 2005-2010 plan.

Behind on its target, the government has ordered the closure of 2,087 outdated, energy-inefficient plants by the end of this month to try to hit the goal.

"We will continue to impose quotas for eliminating obsolete capacity and emission reductions during the 12th five-year plan period," Zhang said.

He said China was willing to import more from the United States, but chided Washington for curbing the export of certain sensitive goods.

"China does not seek a trade surplus, and we are willing to actively increase imports from the U.S. But it is the U.S. that has set too many restrictions on exports to China," Zhang said.

Political tempers are fraying in Washington over the large U.S. bilateral trade deficit with China.

Lawmakers will grill U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the issue this week, with some pressing for punitive action against Beijing unless it lets the yuan rise more swiftly.

Turning to domestic inflation, Zhang expressed confidence that full-year inflation would be below the government's target ceiling of 3 percent.

Consumer prices rose 3.5 percent in the year to August. In the first eight months, prices were up 2.8 percent from a year earlier.

"The chances are not great that international commodity prices will push up domestic consumer prices in the coming three to four months," Zhang said. (Reporting by Aileen Wang and Ben Lim; Writing by Alan Wheatley; Editing by Ken Wills)

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