"The consequences of pollution in the Amur river will be long-term and it will take many months, if not years, to overcome them," Governor Viktor Ishayev said at an emergency committee meeting.

Slowed down by icy water, the slick has been making its way down the Songhua river, known as Sungari in Russian, which feeds into the Amur, after an explosion upstream at a PetroChina chemical plant last month.

"This is why the administration of Khabarovsk province has decided to appeal to Russian and Chinese government leaders and foreign ministry heads to demand exhaustive measures to defend the interests of the inhabitants of the Far East," Ishayev said.

The 130-kilometre (81-mile) long slick is travelling at 40 kilometres per hour and is 320 kilometres from the confluence with the Amur river, which snakes along the border between Russia and China, according to the latest Russian figures.

"There is no guarantee that the explosion at a chemical plant in China's Jilin province is the only and final accident on this scale. Rapid industrial development in China has been accompanied by a disregard for problems of security and the environment," the governor continued.

"Sixteen chemical plants and the biggest cellulose production plant in the world are in the Sungari river basin and are working without almost any purification equipment," he said.

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