After putting two highly polluting projects on hold as a result of public pressure, the top environmental watchdog yesterday said it would seek to establish a proper mechanism to allow for its further participation in environmental governance.

"The public is the most interested party when it comes to the environment and has the biggest incentive to protect it," the vice-minister of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) Pan Yue said at an urban management symposium in Beijing.

"Therefore, people should be given the right to know, to express, to participate and to supervise," he said, adding the government should establish a system to protect these rights.