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Beijing mayor worries about Olympic pollution

Beijing's mayor expressed concerns on Friday about how the city will deal with problems including traffic, pollution and corruption before the Olympic Games.

Speaking in his annual work report, Wang Qishan said Olympic projects were on schedule and the economy had grown 12%.

But the city still had many problems to deal with, said Wang, including poor work safety standards, a potential property bubble and growing rich-poor divide.

"Population growth is excessively rapid, and tasks of cleaning up pollution and relieving traffic jams are especially hard," said Wang.

Wang also made a brief mention of corruption in his 90-minute speech. "A number of government departments and their employees lack a proper understanding of their service responsibilities and a tiny number of officials use their public position for private gain and become corrupt and degenerate," Wang said.

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photo by Gene Zhang