The governments of three of China's most populous cities have been told they provided inadequate pollution controls and failed to meet some "green" targets, according to the results of top-level inspections.

Teams under the guidance of the State Council examined Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing as part of the nation's second round of provincial inspections started in late November. The Ministry of Environmental Protection published the findings on Wednesday.

Although the problems exposed in each city varied, a common point in each report was that the municipal governments had not properly implemented some measures aimed at pollution control.