China on Wednesday imposed a temporary ban on pork imports from Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands over a dioxin scare in the European countries.

According to the General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine, pork already shipped from these countries to China must undergo a dioxin test when arriving at Chinese ports.

The Belgium's food safety bureau said recently that faulty filters at a local chemical plant caused abnormal levels of dioxin to reach animal feed.

Dioxin is a by-product of garbage burning and industrial activities,causing a range of illnesses in humans, such as cancer.

Source: Xinhua security of long-distance oil transport.

For years, China has depended mainly on foreign shipping companies from Japan and the Republic of Korea to ship its imported oil.

The increase in demand for oil in China has meant an increase in oil imports in recent years. To meet the demand, China has started to establish a domestic shipping fleet to secure the safety of imported oil transport.

Wei Jiafu, president of COSCO, said the two companies agreed to cooperate in oil supply and strengthen cooperation in the fuel market to ensure enough fuel supply for COSCO's fleet.

Sinopec is China's largest oil producer and supplier, and the country's largest oil importer.

Founded in 1961, COSCO now operates a variety of merchant vessels and boasts a fleet of some 600 ships, the world's second largest transport capacity.

In 2005, COSCO transported over 300 million tons of cargo for its domestic and overseas clients, scoring a profit of 20 billion yuan (2.5 billion U.S. dollars).

Source: Xinhua