Beijing has unleashed "energy cops" to enforce limits on air-conditioner use as the government pushes to save power and clean grimy skies, the Beijing News reported on Monday.

China last year vowed to cut energy consumption for every unit of economic activity by 20 percent by the end of 2010. 

The government's latest weapon is "energy-saving police" -- 22 officials who will check whether offices, hotels, malls and other big buildings in Beijing are observing a demand to set air conditioning no cooler than 26 degrees Celsius, the Beijing News reported.

Citizens can also complain about buildings that fail to observe the rule on a special phone line, the paper said.

Worried that the nation cannot sustain growth, the central government has repeatedly ordered officials and companies to save energy. 

Efforts to clear the capital of pollution have taken on a new urgency with the 2008 Beijing Olympics just over a year away.

"There can be absolutely no slackening," warned a commentary in the People Daily. "Avoid scoffing down a resource banquet that will leave a debt of 1,000 years for future generations."

"All regions and sectors must thoroughly grasp the importance and urgency of saving energy and reducing emissions," said the People Daily.

The paper warned that high-energy industries continued to expand too fast in the first quarter of this year.

"If we don't accelerate structural adjustment, contain this trend, and transform the crude high-energy, heavy-pollution development model... it may mean resources cannot be shored up, the environment cannot cope and society will find it intolerable."

The government said last week that energy efficiency and pollutant cuts would figure in assessing officials for possible promotion. The five-year plan also calls for reducing major pollutants by 10 percent.

On Monday, the China Youth Daily reported a survey of 4,834 citizens that found 84.6 percent considered global warming an urgent world issue. The report did not say how the survey was conducted.