Apple has agreed to a joint pollution audit of its Chinese suppliers' factories with a green group in China, British newspaper Financial Times reported Monday.

One of Apple's circuit board manufacturers in China will be co-scrutinized in the following weeks by Apple and China-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE), the report said.

Efforts to persuade Apple to take its pollution issues seriously in China have continued for years.

In 2010, when IPE found that suppliers of 29 foreign enterprises in China were involved in environmental contamination, only Apple gave no response.

But Apple agreed to talks with IPE in Sept 2011, two weeks after IPE issued the second report claiming worsening pollution among Apple's Chinese suppliers.

At the end of last October, the two parties held a five-hour meeting at Apple's headquarters in the US.

In March, Fair Labor Association, an American collaborative effort dedicated to protecting workers' rights around the world, said that China's three Foxconn factories making Apple's products need to improve their working conditions.