Beijing reported another day of "fairly good" air quality for day 12 of the Olympics.

Figures released by the China Environmental Monitoring Center showed the city's Air Pollution Index (API) on Wednesday was 53, within Grade II, or fairly good.

Although the sky was somewhat overcast in the afternoon, the sun was shining and the air was light with a cool breeze in the morning. Temperature remained comfortable outdoors.

The Beijing Municipal Meteorological Bureau said the city is expecting some rain on Wednesday night.

In the past 12 days, since the Olympics opened, the city has reported air quality of grade I and II, within the standards to host the Olympics, according to the Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection.

Its deputy director Du Shaozhong announced at a press conference on Tuesday that the air quality so far this month has been the best for this time of the year in previous 10 years. Last August had only two days of grade I or II quality.

Beijing municipal government said it had poured more than 140 billion yuan (20.5 billion U.S. dollars) since 1998 into more than 200 projects for improving the city's air quality.

In the run-up to the Games, the main host city implemented some drastic measures, such as the two-month vehicle control that would keep cars off the road on alternate days, to reduce pollution .

(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2008)