Those targets were part of a broader plan to slash energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and the discharge of major pollutants by 10 percent by 2010, the end of the country's current five-year plan.

"We have seen no notable improvement in China's problems, including overly rapid growth in fixed-asset investment, excessive consumption of energy and severe environmental pollution," the overseas edition of the People's Daily quoted Yu as saying.

"Rather, the situation in some sectors has tended to deteriorate," he said.

Worried that the nation cannot sustain its resource-depleting growth path, the central government has repeatedly ordered its provinces to save energy.

Its latest notice came on Sunday, when the State Council, or cabinet, said that energy efficiency and pollutant reduction would be key factors in their performance assessments.

On Monday, China released its first national plan on climate change, saying it planned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 950 million tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2010.

But it also said it will give overriding priority to economic development as the nation seeks to balance ambitions for growth with fears of environmental calamity.

Exacerbating the problem has been the easy availability of cheap loans, which have prompted wasteful investment.

The official Financial News reported that China's commercial banks were lending aggressively to energy-intensive sectors.