<div><p>The Seoul city government will help fund a tree-planting project in a Chinese desert to reduce the amount of harmful "yellow dust" blowing over South Korea, officials said Wednesday.</p><p>The city government signed an accord Tuesday to invest 50 million won (42,000 dollars) in the planting project led by Future Forest, a South Korean environmental group operating in China for the past 10 years.</p><p>The investment will be used to purchase and plant some 72,000 poplar and desert willow trees in Inner Mongolia's Kubuqi Desert, 600 kilometres (370 miles) west of Beijing.</p><p>"Yellow dust" -- fine sand blown from China and Mongolia which sometimes includes toxic chemical smog emitted by Chinese factories -- can cause respiratory disorders.</p><p>"We who suffer from yellow dust hope it will contribute to solving the problem and improving the South Korea-Chinese friendly relationship," a Seoul city official handling the project told AFP.</p><p>He said the Kubuqi Desert, the world's seventh largest, is blamed for causing 40 percent of "yellow dust" that blankets the Korean peninsula every spring.</p><p>Future Forest, in partnership with the All China Youth Federation, has created wooded areas in Chinese arid areas to help alleviate the problem.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=62664219&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

Copyright 2009  <a href="http://www.afp.com/english/links/?pid=copyright">AFP Global Edition</a></div></div>