An air-quality early warning system that will forecast smog two or three days in advance is to be put into use, the Ministry of Environmental Protection announced on April 3.

At a meeting on environmental monitoring, Vice Minister Wu Xiaoqing said that an air-quality forecast and early warning center covering the whole country is already in operation with an accuracy of 60 to 70 percent.

China began air-quality forecasts in 47 major cities in 1998. The new system covers all prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, as well as the areas surrounding Beijing and other capital cities of provincial regions.

Wu called for improvements through remote sensing and other cutting-edge technology, as well as innovations in publicizing air-quality information. China currently has around 1,200 automatic air-quality monitoring stations across 252 cities.