BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Environment ministers of China and the Republic of Korea have agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation in tackling regional environmental problems while promoting the development of relevant industries.

　　Xie Zhenhua, director of China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), held talks here Tuesday with his ROK counterpart Han Myeon-sook, a member of the entourage of the visiting ROK President Roh Moo-hyun.

　　The two sides agreed that China and the ROK should conduct closer collaboration in surveillance, forecast and research of sand storms, a common environmental problem of northeast Asia during spring.

　　Mongolia, Kazakhstan and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea should also be involved in the regional effort to prevent sand storms and desertification, they said.

　　Detailed work in this regard is expected to be carried out along with the fifth meeting of the environment ministers of China, the ROK and Japan, scheduled for early November in Beijing.

　　Chinese and Korean enterprises involved in environmental protection have also been encouraged to explore mutual markets.

　　China plans to invest 700 billion yuan (85 billion US dollars) into pollution control and environmental protection in the 2001-2005 period, which means a huge market for environmental protection technologies and facilities, Xie said at a symposium onChina-ROK environmental protection industry and investment.

　　There would be plenty of opportunities for enterprises and financial institutes of other countries, including the ROK, in China's market of environmental protection, he told the symposium, which was also attended by Han Myeon-sook.

　　The industry of environmental protection in China has recorded 170 billion yuan (20 billion US dollars) in annual output value and is growing at the rate of 20 percent each year. Enditem