BEIJING, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Four of China's largest power companies censured last week for violating environmental protection rules have closed down most of their offending plants, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

The State Environmental Protection Administration had said that the four would not get environmental approval for any new projects until they resolved problems with existing plants.

The companies involved are Hong Kong-listed Datang International Power Generation Co. <0991.HK><601991.SS> and state-owned Huadian Corp., Huaneng Group and China Guodian Corp. "The four large power groups have earnestly taken rectification steps and most of these offending projects have already stopped," Xinhua said.

It quoted officials with the four as saying they took environmental protection very seriously and would respect national policies on the environment.

After years of promoting economic growth at almost any cost, Beijing is now struggling to change official attitudes, despite a raft of new policies including tying civil servants' career prospects to their energy-saving achievements.

Large swathes of China are affected by chronic air pollution from factories, vehicles and coal-burning power plants. Water and land pollution have poisoned many other parts of the country.

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