Li Keqiang warns fighting pollution will 'take time' as choking smog continues grip

Vice-Premier Li Keqiang said it would take time for the government to tackle air pollution, as smog levels remained at "unhealthy" levels yesterday.

Li, the first high-ranking official to comment on air pollution since a large area of the mainland was blanketed in thick smog over the weekend, also called for a change in industrial production and consumption patterns.

"Pollution is not a problem that emerged only a few days ago - it's a long-term issue, and fixing it will take a long time. But we need to do something about it," Li said. He added that the government regularly releases data on health-threatening PM2.5 particles, but more law enforcement measures were needed.

Air pollution fell yesterday from the "hazardous" and "beyond index" levels of previous days. The PM2.5 count in most urban areas of Beijing fell to around 200 micrograms per cubic metre due to light snowfall and because some industrial production was suspended, according to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre.

In Beijing, levels of PM2.5 - fine particles 2.5 microns or less in diameter - as high as 886 were recorded on Saturday, according to US embassy monitors.

The pollution index was slower to fall yesterday in other parts of the country, such as Jinan , about 440 kilometres south of Beijing in Shandong , where the level stayed above 400.