China is considering building a dam to reduce the impact of a river-borne toxic spill expected to arrive in a Russian city early next week, a government newspaper said today.

The head of a Chinese chemical company blamed for a toxic spill that poisoned a major river and strained relations with Russia has been removed from his post, the company said today.

Another city in north east China has shut down a water plant on a poisoned river fearing contamination from approaching toxic chemicals, an official said today.

Beijing tried to ease strains with Moscow over a river-borne toxic spill flowing toward Russia by today promising to send filtering materials, while five more Chinese cities prepared to stop drawing water from the river.