Qingdao, a city in east China's Shandong Province, and six other cities have retained the title "environment-friendly" after passing their qualification re-examination by the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), the country's environmental watchdog.

In a statement issued Friday, SEPA said the seven cities had made further achievements in the coordinated economic, social and environmental development after winning the honor of being environment-friendly.

Since 1997, SEPA has honored cities that make strong efforts in environmental protection while pursuing high economic growth, By the end of last year, 44 cities had been granted as environmentally friendly cities.

According to the standards set by SEPA, environment-friendly cities should enjoy a good environment, sound infrastructure and rational use of natural resources so that other cities could follow their example in sustainable development.

SEPA re-checks the honored cities every three years. If any of them are found to have failed the standards, they will be asked to improve, otherwise, their title will be withdrawn.

In January this year, SEPA warned Shantou in south China's Guangdong Province either to improve its environment significantly by the end of 2006 or have its title revoked.

The seven cities were the first batch of the honored cities to have passed the regular check, said SEPA.

They also include Kunshan and Changshu of Jiangsu, Qingdao and Weihai of Shandong, Zhongshan of Guangdong and Xiamen of Fujian Province.