HOHHOT, March 27 (Xinhua) -- North China's Inner Mongolia has formed a sandstorm monitoring network as part of the "Sandstorm Project" of the State Environmental Protection Administration, according to officials with the regional meteorological bureau.

    Kang Ling, vice director of the regional meteorological bureau, said that the national meteorological bureau has set up six special sandstorm monitoring stations equipped with automatic devices at the source and along major routes of sandstorms in the region, improving the monitoring and forecast of sandstorms,

    Inner Mongolia has also set up Dopler weather radar stations, satellite earth stations and a satellite communications network for better analysis, monitoring and forecast of sandstorms.

    North China has long been affected by sandstorms with increasing frequency and severity since 1998. Inner Mongolia is among the worst-hit regions and regarded as the source area of sandstorms that hit Beijing.

    In 2005, the direct economic loss caused by sandstorms was well over six million yuan in Inner Mongolia, said Kang Ling. Enditem