Teams of soldiers and policemen will join local efforts Sunday to clean up the oil spill on the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China's biggest city, local officials said on Saturday.

The clean-up will be coordinated by local maritime departments, said an official with Shanghai Municipal government.

The latest emergency plan was made as locals struggled to clean up a spill involving several kilometers of the river.

According to the plan, the polluted section will be divided into 16 sections, and the cleaning teams will use oil-absorbing cotton to clean up the oil.

The operation is anticipated to last until Aug. 12 before the next major high tide.

An unidentified small boat hit a cargo ship moored in the Huangpu River near the Wujing Power Plant on Aug. 5, damaging the ship's cabin and causing 85 tons of fuel to spill into the river.

The small boat, deemed to be at fault, disappeared under the cover of darkness shortly after the accident.

A total of 17 vessels have been dispatched to the site of the oil spill. About 20 tons of oil-bearing water has been collected and the oil spill has been kept to a restricted area.

But some of the spilled oil has been carried to the riverside, and several plots of wetland at the upper reaches of the river have already been polluted.

The Huangpu River flows eastward through the heart of Shanghai, China's most important industrial and commercial center, and empties into the East China Sea.

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