BEIJING  Thu Jan 15, 2015 12:28pm GMT

China has met its 2014 targets for air and water pollution control, the official news agency Xinhua said on Thursday.

The environmental protection minister, Zhou Shengxian, told an annual government meeting that authorities last year banned 7 million high-emission vehicles from the road, shut down 50,000 coal-fired furnaces, installed denitrification and desulfurisation equipment in power plants and factories, and added new sewage treatment plants, Xinhua said.

Zhou said the annual targets set out by the central government had been fulfilled.

In September, China said it was on track to exceed its 2014 targets for cutting water pollution.

A lack of environmental oversight during decades of economic growth has caused a dire pollution crisis in China, where major cities are shrouded in perennial smog and half the groundwater is tainted.