Premier Wen Jiabao Friday pledged to further transform government functions this year, urging that governments at all levels must fulfill all of their responsibilities.

Wen made the remarks in a report on the work of the government delivered at the opening of the Second Session of the Tenth National People's Congress, the top legislature of China.

The government bears heavy and demanding responsibilities in the effort to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects, he said, adding that governments and leading cadres at all levels need to adapt to new situations and tasks and continually raise their administrative and management ability.

The government must pay more attention to social administration and public service work. In particular, he said, "We need to speedup the establishment of emergency response mechanisms and improve the government's ability to deal with public crises."

While transforming government functions, efforts will be intensified to adhere to scientific and democratic policy-making, by integrating public participation, expert evaluation and government decision-making to ensure that the government's policies are scientific and correct.

Governments at all levels must exercise their power and perform their duties within the scope of their authority defined by law and in accordance with legal procedures, and consciously accept the oversight of the general public, the premier said.

"We must improve the government's style of work and improve the overall quality of public servants," he said. "We must work harder to build a clean government and fight more vigorously against corruption."

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2004)