(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-12-18 22:22

The Communist Party of China (CPC) will intensify its fight against corruption and give such work a "more prominent place" on its agenda, a senior Party meeting presided by President Hu Jintao declared on Tuesday.

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The Party and government will "carry out the fight against corruption in a comprehensive way, address its symptoms and root causes, and combine punishment with prevention with the emphasis on prevention," said a statement issued following the meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC's Central Committee.

"Party committees at various levels must realize the perennial, complex and arduous nature of the anti-corruption fight, and implement the guidelines issued at the CPC's 17th National Congress," the statement said.

In his report to congress, Hu said the country would continue its efforts to build a clean government and fight corruption.

According to the statement, the Party and government would also strengthen supervision and education on leaders of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to help them uphold integrity and stem corruption so as to promote the healthy development of SOEs.

The meeting urged China's Party discipline organs and government supervision departments to speed their work on setting a new plan to improve the anti-corruption system between 2008 and 2012.

The plan was designed to collect new ideas and measures to prevent corruption and punish corrupt officials.

It was decided at the meeting that the second plenary session of the CPC's 17th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection would be held in January.

In September, China established its first National Bureau of Corruption Prevention in a bid to stop corruption at its source by reforming systems and closing loopholes in policies.

A number of ministerial-level or higher Chinese officials have fallen to "serious corruption" charges in the last five years, including the former director of the National Bureau of Statistics Qiu Xiaohua, the former food and drug administration head Zheng Xiaoyu, and former Party head of Shanghai Chen Liangyu.

Last year, more than 90,000 officials were disciplined, accounting for 0.14 percent of the total CPC members.

In the latest case, He Minxu, former vice governor of Anhui Province, went on trial on December 5 on bribery charges.

Public prosecutors alleged that from 1991 to May 2006, during He's tenure in various posts -- as deputy labor bureau chief of Zhejiang, Lishui and Chizhou prefectural Party chief, as well as deputy governor of Anhui -- He solicited bribes totaling 8.41 million yuan ($1.12 million) from 27 organizations and individuals.

He was the first high-ranking official to be tried since the conclusion of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October.