Xie Zhenhua, now deputy head of the National Development and Reform Commission. [file]

The NDRC's English-language Website now lists 57-year-old Xie Zhenhua, former director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, as a vice minister who enjoys the benefits of a ministerial official.

The NDRC is one of China's most powerful agencies in charge of directing economic decisions. It has 12 deputy directors.

China's Cabinet approved Xie's resignation on December 2, 2005, seven years after he took office, following a chemical spill that seriously polluted the Songhua River in the country's northeast.

Xie was the highest-ranking official ever to be removed from office for an environmental mishap.

Around 100 tons of pollutants containing hazardous benzene spilled into the Songhua after a chemical plant explosion on November 13, 2005 in northeast China's Jilin Province. The incident forced cities along the river, including Harbin, capital of Heilongjiang Province and a city of more than three million people, to temporarily suspend water supplies.

As the pollutants flowed into a major border river between China and Russia, a plan for diplomatic efforts and environmental cooperation was implemented to minimize the effects of trans-border pollution.

Xie, who began working for the NDRC at the end of 2006, is in charge of environmental protection and energy saving, Saturday's 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The report said Xie's department will become a new major section of the NDRC.

Ma Kai, minister in charge of the NDRC, said earlier that China faces severe problems with high energy consumption and heavy pollution and has urged stronger efforts in the areas.

China planned to cut its energy use per unit of gross domestic product by four percent in 2006, but it failed to accomplish its goal.