"If environmental protection efforts continue to lag behind economic growth, pollution will become even more rampant," said Zhou Shengxian, head of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), following a two-day national conference on environmental protection.

Zhou also lambasted the lack of environmental controls saying that the 510,000 disputes over environmental pollution last year, "caused a great threat to social stability."

"We'll take into account an environmental impact in the evaluation of local officials. Those who fail to meet requirements will pay a price for turning a blind eye to the law," said Zhou.

According to Zhou, eight of the 76 environmental accidents occurred since Nov. last year were serious, such as the accident spill of cadmium in the Beijiang River in south China's Guangdong province, which menaced local drinking and agricultural water supplies.

Other major water pollution incidents including the chemical spills along northeast China's Hunjiang River, central-south China's Hunan's Xiangjiang River, and an oil spill in the Ganjiang River in east China's Jiangxi Province.

In 2005, 97.1 percent of all environmental mishapes involved the release of pollution. Water contamination made up 50.6 percent of the accidents. Almost 40 percent of environmental accidents involved air pollution. All the accidents caused up to 105 million yuan (13.125 million US dollars) in direct economic losses.

Last November, a chemical plant blast in northeastern Jilin province released 100 tons of toxic benzene and nitrobenzene into the Songhua River, compelling officials to cut off water supplies to millions of people downstream. It was one of China's biggest environmental accidents since the founding of new China in 1949. SEPA's director, Xie Zhenhua, resigned after the Songhua River spill.

Last year, 27 officials involved in seven pollution incidents were prosecuted and convicted. Enditem