Ma Kai, head of the National Development and Reform Commission, said China would no longer try to reduce energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) by four percent and output of major pollutants by two percent each year.

He told a press conference in Beijing that the wide range of conservation measures being considered by the government to achieve the broader 2010 cuts would make reaching specific annual targets unrealistic.

"Some measures we take will have an immediate effect, while in the case of some others, they will take time to be effective," he said.

"So it will be difficult to simply divide up the five-year targets but instead we will set up more accurate annual targets."

He gave no specifics on the new annual goals.

China previously said it was aiming to cut energy consumption per unit of GDP by 20 percent and pollution by 10 percent by 2010 from levels in 2005.

But the project got off to a bad start, with Chinese officials admitting recently they had come nowhere near reaching the targets for 2006.

Energy consumption per unit of GDP fell by just 1.23 percent last year, instead of 4.0 percent as planned.

Air and water pollutants were to be reduced by 2.0 percent in 2006 but the key indicators for those instead rose by 1.8 percent and 1.2 percent.

But Ma emphasised that the 2010 goal remains firm.

"The target will never be changed and the Chinese people will be steadfast in realising these targets," he said.

"There is no other choice for the Chinese people."

China's government is under increasing pressure both at home and abroad to pay greater attention to the environment, particularly as the rapidly developing country's greenhouse gas emissions figure ever more prominently in the global warming picture.

In his opening speech to this week's National People's Congress session on Monday, Premier Wen Jiabao said hitting the 2010 goals should be a national priority.

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