A senior military leader has urged the army to take the lead in China's environmental protection campaign, saying that servicemen are duty-bound to protect and improve the environment and ensure the country's biological safety.

Liao Xilong, a member of the Central Military Commission and director of the General Logistic Department of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), made this call at Thursday's meeting of the committee for environmental protection and afforestation of the PLA.

Liao, who also heads the PLA environment greening committee, disclosed that in 2003 alone, Chinese servicemen reclaimed about 133,000 hectares of waste land and planted four million trees around barracks. Last year, the military planted 1,470 hectares oftrees and grass, he said.

Moreover, he urged army units to adopt new technology to spread the afforestation experience and go all out to improve the quality of the environmental construction. 

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2004)