BEIJING (AP) — China denied yesterday it pressured the World Bank to cut data from a draft of an environmental report that allegedly found that pollution caused about 750,000 premature deaths nation-wide annually.The Financial Times reported on Monday that Beijing had persuaded the bank to cut findings that outdoor air pollution levels in Chinese cities cause 350,000 to 400,000 premature deaths each year. Poor indoor air kills another 300,000 people and more than 60,000 die due to poor quality water, the draft report said.

"The report you mentioned has not concluded yet and has not been released," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing. "There was no issue of the deletion of relevant data requested by China."

The government was apparently concerned the figures could cause social unrest if released, the Financial Times reported.

A World Bank spokeswoman in Beijing, Li Li, would not say whether China had pressured the bank to omit data. "There are discussions of the findings," Li said by telephone.

She referred to a World Bank statement released on Tuesday that said comments had been received from the Chinese government, particularly the State Environmental Protection Administration, which oversees the country's environmental policies.

The statement said some subjects such as economic cost calculations were left out of a preliminary version of the report because of "some uncertainties about calculation methods and its application."