The Chinese authorities have begun scrapping Beijing's fleet of minibus taxis, melting down the first three-thousand at a local steelworks.

The aim is to reduce exhaust fumes in what is one of the world's most polluted capitals.

The taxis make up less than two-percent of the city's vehicles, but officials say they produce fifteen-percent of Beijing's exhaust pollution.

The plan is to remove all twenty-thousand minibus taxis from the capital's streets by the year 2000.