Han, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, made the commitment in his report to the on-going Fourth Session of the Ninth National People's Congress on Saturday.

The procuratorial organization will make top priorities of the crackdown on criminal activities, investigations into job-related crimes and the enhancement of supervision over proceedings in criminal, civil and administrative cases, Han said.

At the same time, Han promised to deepen personnel reform, in order to increase the working efficiency of the procuratorial system.

Looking back on the work done by procuratorial organizations last year, Han said China's procuratorates at various levels investigated 45,113 cases of embezzlement, bribery and malpractice, retrieving over 4.7 billion yuan (US$568 million) of direct economic loss.

The public prosecutors gave special attention to the investigation of cases involving officials of county-level and above as well as cases involving large amounts of money.

Seven officials at ministerial level and above, 184 departmental-or-bureau-level and 2,680 county-or division-level officials were investigated for alleged job-related crimes, Han said.

The execution of Cheng Kejie, former vice-chairman of the NPC Standing Committee, showed the determination of the Chinese Communist Party and the government to fight corruption, Han said.

A total of 18,086 cases of embezzlement and bribery, each involving an amount over 50,000 yuan (US$6,024), including 1,335 cases each involving more than 1 million yuan (US$120,919) were investigated last year, he added.

To guarantee social stability and maintain market order, the procuratorial departments carried out several "strike-hard" campaigns to fight crimes such as the kidnap of women and children, smuggling, making counterfeit currency, export tax fraud and the production and sale of counterfeit products.

The work of procuratorial organizations has also served the nation's economic development, especially in regard to the reform of State-owned enterprises and the western development, Han said.

Over the last year, 18,874 suspects were investigated for allegedly committing embezzlement crimes and privately dividing and misappropriating State-owned properties during reform, Han said.

Procuratorial organizations also investigated around 300 crimes related to the construction of major projects, the protection of the environment and the management of disaster relief funds to western regions, he added.

(China Daily 03/12/2001)