Beijing called off a heavy fog warning Friday morning after the second snow of this winter in accompany with a strong cold current expelled the lingering fog over the past four days.

"The air quality will get better on Friday noon, and we can expect a 'blue sky' on Saturday," said Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Municipal Bureau of Environment Protection.

Air quality was designated as "heavily polluted" on Thursday, after four days of lingering fog.

Beijing is anticipating to fulfill the target of 245 "blue sky days" this year. If the sky would be clear on Saturday, the target could be achieved.

Du said that he had been worried that the target would be missed because of the lingering fog, which stagnated the air pollution in the city.

The traffic was difficult in morning rush hours with over 100 major road sections jammed. The average driving speed was blow 20 km per hour on over 70 road sections in Beijing, according to the monitoring by the Beijing Traffic Control Center.

"Snow melt as long as it reached the ground. Drivers are afraid of wheel slippery, especially on slopes of highway bridges," said a driver surnamed Wang, who had been kept waiting in a long queue as his car inched forward to descend from a highway bridge on the southern No. 3 ring road.

Beijing welcomed the first snow on Dec. 10, later than the late November snow in normal years.

(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2007)