Altogether 133 police officers were deemed to have violated a code of conduct for police, which was released in 2003 and bans illicit firing of guns, drinking while carrying firearms, drink driving, on-duty drinking and gambling, a spokesman from the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) told Xinhua on Thursday.

These five categories of misconduct are considered the most prevalent among China's police forces and have greatly tarnished the police's image, a police statement said.

The 34 police officers were fired for serious violations of the bans, the police said, confirming a report published by Thursday's Legal Daily.

Another 26 police officers were punished for taking bribes from companies and 33 were punished for misconduct and slack enforcement in cases of gang crime, drug crime and bribery, the report said, adding that no officials had been sacked for these violations.

The police authority also punished 13 officials for running entertainment businesses or helping their relatives run such ventures with police influence, it said, noting that police involvement in businesses was commonplace in some regions.

For example, the report said, in western Sichuan province, 236 police officers reported to authorities that they had in some way abused their power to carry out commercial activities. Penalties were waived because they confessed to their actions.

The police authority should continue to curb misconduct in order to administrate police forces at a high standard, Zhu Chunlin, supervision chief of the MPS, said on Wednesday.

Police records show that 967 police officers had been sacked for violating the code of conduct since it came into effect in January 2003 with 353 fired last year.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2006)