Chinese prosecutors have focused the investigation of job-related crimes on high-level officials, "profitable" government sections, monopoly industries and state-owned companies in an effort to weed out corruption, top prosecutor Jia Chunwang said in Beijing Saturday.

A total of 41,449 government employees were probed by prosecutors in 2005 for corruption and dereliction of duty, of which 30,205 were brought to court, said Jia, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, in his annual work report to the parliament.

"Job-related crimes have been rampant in some industries and government sections over the past years, but the latest trend has come into being that more money is involved, crimes are committed more secretively and more are absconding with large sums of public money," the top prosecutor said.

Chinese prosecutors investigated 2,799 government officials above the county level, including 196 at prefecture level and eight at provincial and ministerial level. In addition, 9,117 executives of state-owned companies were probed for misappropriating or embezzling company assets.

In 2005, 703 government officials at large suspected of job- related crimes were seized, 14.5 percent more than the previous year, with 7.4 billion yuan of illicit money confiscated, 62.9 percent more than 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2006)