China's energy consumption for unit domestic gross product (GDP) rose slightly by 0.8 percent in the first half year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said Tuesday.

"The situation is not promising for regions and major industries to cut their energy consumption. It will be a very challenging task for them to attain this year's goal", a NBS official said.

China has planned to cut its per unit GDP energy consumption by four percent this year, as part of an ambitious plan to reduce its energy consumption efficiency by 20 percent at the end of 2010.

The increased energy consumption is mainly a result of poor performance in some energy-intensive industries, according to NBS.

Its figures show that energy consumption for unit of value added increased by 5.5 percent for coal mining industry in the first six months, and 8.7 percent for oil and petrochemicals industry.

Non-ferrous metals and electricity industries saw their energy consumption per unit of GDP gained slightly by 0.4 percent and 0.8percent, respectively.

Energy consumption for per unit of GDP dropped by 5 percent for the chemical industry, and 5.5 percent for textile industry.

Construction and steel, both traditionally energy-intensive industries, recorded a drop of 1.2 percent and 4.5 percent in their energy consumption for per unit of GDP.

In its keen efforts to break the bottleneck of energy for its dynamic economy and embrace the strategy of sustainable development, the Chinese government is now attaching unprecedented importance to energy saving.

To make sure its policies are implemented, the country's top planning body, the National Development and Reform Commission, has recently signed pacts with all the provincial governments, defining their responsibilities to the energy-saving goals.

The NBS official urged local authorities to push for further restructuring of their economies and focus their efforts on energy-saving in key industries and enterprises, to ensure that they will achieve the set goals.

(Xinhua News Agency August 2, 2006)