Tom Cruise's latest Hollywood blockbuster "Mission Impossible III" has been given the green light to be screened to mainland audiences, once the month-long blackout on foreign film ends.

Tom Cruise helps fiancee Katie Holmes out of a Bugatti automobile as they arrive to the Los Angeles premiere of Mission Impossible 3 in Hollywood Thursday, May 4, 2006. This was Holmes' first public appearance since giving birth to the couple's daughter Suri. [AP]

Sources with China Film Group, the movie's local distributor, who asked to remain nameless, confirmed to China Daily that the premiere date will be July 18, two days early than previously scheduled.

"Some necessary edits have been made to make the movie more acceptable to Chinese audiences," said Chen Zhe of United International Pictures Shanghai Office, the movie's international distributor.

He declined to reveal details of the edits.

Beijing Entertainment News speculated that the parts that have been cut include some violent scenes at the beginning of the movie, and a scene in which Chinese people play mahjong on the street.

The movie, starring Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt, was partially shot last year in Shanghai and Xitang, a small town in neighbouring Zhejiang Province.

Its Shanghai press conference attracted hundreds of reporters from across China.

The movie has achieved box office success in other parts of the world.

However in China it has been delayed for more than one month because it failed to get approval from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television.

Chinese media said this was because the movie challenged traditional practices of filmmaking in China.

(China Daily 06/14/2006 page2)