Chinese President Hu Jintao (L2) plants a tree at the Olympic Forest Park in Beijing, April 1, 2007. Senior Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao joined two million people in Beijing for voluntary tree planting on Sunday. (Xinhua Photo) Photo Gallery>>>

    BEIJING, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao joined 2 million people in Beijing for voluntary tree planting on Sunday.

    Other senior leaders, including Wu Bangguo, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Wu Guanzheng and Luo Gan, also took part in Sunday's activity at the city's Olympic Forest Park to mark the 23rd tree-planting day of the capital, which falls on April 1.

    "Forestation is a matter that concerns the immediate interests of the people. Every citizen should assume his responsibility and actively participate in planting trees," Hu told the volunteers.

    Hu said this year is a critical time for Beijing Olympic Games preparation and he hoped Beijing municipal authorities could try their best to usher in the Olympics with a better environment of the capital Beijing.

    The city plans to plant 510,000 trees in the Olympic Forest Park, located on the north of the Main Stadium of 2008 Olympic Games. Currently, more than 330,000 trees have been planted there.

    Hu Jintao and other senior leaders have planted trees at the park on many occasions in recent years.

    Leading officials from some central government ministries and Beijing municipal departments as well as local residents, totaling2 million people, planted trees at several locations of Beijing on Sunday.

    According to a government decision on tree planting issued in 1981, Chinese citizens aged from 11 to 55 are required to plant three to five trees every year, aiming to increase China's forest coverage rate.

    In 2006, about 550 million Chinese planted 2.16 billion trees in China, statistics from State Forestry Administration (SFA) show.