BEIJING - China's supreme court has appointed a senior judge to handle environmental cases as the environmentally challenged country bids to get tough on polluters and improve the way its laws are enforced, an official newspaper said on Monday.

China Environmental News, published by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, said Zheng Xuelin had been appointed as the presiding judge of the Environmental and Resources Tribunal of the Supreme People's Court.

The tribunal was formally established just two weeks ago.

The report said the new state tribunal would give "unified guidance and coordination" to the 134 specialist environmental courts that have been set up by local governments, noting that the procedures used to handle such cases was "very informal".

Litigators have long complained that lawsuits launched against polluters have been routinely rejected or even ignored by local courts, many of which lack the capacity and the independence to take on government-backed firms.

China has promised to create legal channels allowing members of the public to take action against firms that break the law, but environmental officials say they lack resources and are already overwhelmed by the number of cases.

Earlier this year, China passed amendments to its 1989 Environmental Protection Law, giving local governments greater powers to fine, shut down and even imprison violators.