Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has called for the country's governments at various levels to strive to be clean, pragmatic and efficient while working hard to administer according to law, official sources said Thursday.

Addressing the July 20-21 national meeting attended by chiefs of general offices of provincial governments, the premier said the Chinese government has the important task of improving the style of governing while deepening economic reforms and continuing to promote socialist democracy.

Vice Premiers Huang Ju, Wu Yi and Zeng Peiyan, and some other high-ranking central government officials also attended the meeting.

Governments at various levles should carry out their duties in economic regulation and market supervision while giving more attention to social management and public services. One of the important tasks for them is the improvement of their capacity to respond to unexpected incidents, said the premier.

He said the governments should continue ruling the country according to law. They should abide by the administrative licensing law, which was designed to regulate government powers, and promote rule of law.

Under the administrative licensing law, which took effect on July 1, commissions and ministries of the central government will no longer have the right to empower themselves with franchising rights. Fee collection practices will be abandoned except for those by law.

So far, commissions and ministries of the central government have given up rights of administering 1,795 franchise rights according to the law, accounting for 48.9 percent of the former total. Provincial governments have also canceled a large amount of related licensing rights.

"If the law is enforced strictly, corruption that plagues China's administrative licensing sector can be greatly reduced," said Wang Yongqing, deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Office under the State Council, who helped draft the law.

(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2004)