The "blue sky" days, or days with fairly good air quality, reached 25 in Beijing in the past month, setting a record in seven years, local environment authorities said on Monday.

The figure means six days more than the same period last year, according to a spokesman with the Beijing Environment Protection Monitoring Center.

He attributed the increase mainly to the frequent but weak cold air activities, which offered a favorable condition for atmospheric diffusion.

By the end of last month, Beijing had registered 186 "blue sky" days this year, one day more than the corresponding period of last year, he said.

The city still needs 59 such days to meet this year's goal of 245 days, he added.

The Chinese capital launched a drive "Defending the Blue Sky" in 1998, when it only had 100 days of "blue sky".

Last year, Beijing saw a total of 241 "blue sky" days.

As the host of next year's Olympic Games, Beijing has been working on reducing environmental pollution and improving air quality to ensure "Green Olympics."

In one move, the municipal government has urged local residents to take public transport instead of driving private cars by axing bus and subway fares, hoping to reduce pollution of auto exhaust.

The city is also considering a traffic ban during the period of Olympics, in which drivers with even-numbered and odd-numbered license plates, excluding taxis, buses and emergency vehicles, will be told to stay off the roads on alternate dates or face fines.

During a four-day test of the traffic ban launched from Aug. 17 to 20, about 1.3 million cars were barred from the city roads each day and the amount of pollutants discharged was cut by 5815.2 tons, according to a report released by Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau.

(Xinhua News Agency October 3, 2007)