Xiamen mayor Liu Cigui said yesterday the government was committed to tackling the environmental issue in the city.

He said this in response to last week's demonstration against the building of a chemical plant in the city, which the protestors believed would seriously contaminate the air.

"We understand the demonstrators are worried about the city's environment. We will take that into consideration and will try our best to maintain a environmentally friendly Xiamen," said Liu.

Last week, local residents took to the streets protesting against setting up of a factory which deals with poisonous chemical substance P-Xylene.

However, Liu condemned "irresponsible" media reports for exaggerating the number of protestors.

"There were in fact only several hundreds people at the protest," he said.

He, however, declined to comment on many people had been arrested by Xiamen police.