Ding, a member of both the Political Bureau and Secretariat of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made this call at a meeting attended by officials from these websites on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Over the past year, a number of key news portals, including "www.xinhuanet.com" run by Xinhua News Agency and "www.people.com" operated by the People's Daily have been developing rapidly, while some important local websites have also been springing up, according to Ding, who is also head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.

These online official mouthpieces have become major sources of news for commercial websites, Ding said. Meanwhile, a number of laws and regulations have been enacted to bring these websites under the rule of law, he noted.

The official stressed that these websites should try hard to be more attractive and influential among Internet surfers, while increasing their sense of responsibility and urgency of reporting the news on time.

(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2001)