The projects, including the five-billion-dollar Xiloudu hydropower plant on the Yangtze River in southwest China, all went ahead before their environmental impact assessments had been approved, the China Daily reported.

"We want to warn firms that the environmental impact assessment cannot just be ignored," Pan Yue, vice head of the State Environmental Protection Administration, was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

The measure comes as a surprise as most of the affected projects are involved in electricity generation, and China is currently suffering from a huge power shortfall.

Some of the projects may never resume if the environmental impact assessment eventually shows they are not up to scratch, the newspaper reported.

The Law on Environmental Impact Assessments went into force in 2003, but the drastic measure adopted by the government has raised suspicions it has not been properly implemented.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.