Zheng Xiaoyu, the former director of China's State Food and Drug Administration, was given the death penalty at his first round of trials in a Beijing court on Tuesday morning.

Zheng, 63, was convicted of bribe-taking and dereliction of duty, the Beijing Municipal No. 1 Intermediate People's Court said.

He was given the death penalty on the bribery charge and seven years' imprisonment for the charge of dereliction of duty.

The death sentence was appropriate, according to the court, given the "huge amount of bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public by Zheng's dereliction of duty."

The bribes taken by Zheng, including cash and gifts, were worth more than 6.49 million yuan (US$832,000), according to the court.

The court said Zheng "sought benefits" for eight pharmaceutical companies by approving their drugs and medical devices during his tenure as China's chief drug and food official from June 1997 to December 2006.

"(Zheng's acts) greatly undermined the uprightness of an official post and the efficiency of China's drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health, and had a very negative social impact," the court said.

Zheng was also deprived of all of his personal property and political rights for life.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2007)