The Communist Party of China (CPC) will intensify its fight against corruption and the effort will have a "more prominent place" on its agenda, a top-level Party meeting presided by President Hu Jintao declared yesterday.

The Party and government will "carry out the fight against corruption comprehensively, address its symptoms and root causes, and combine punishment with prevention with the emphasis on prevention," said a statement issued after a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC.

"Party committees at various levels must realize the perennial, complex and arduous nature of the anti-corruption fight, and implement the guidelines issued at the CPC's 17th National Congress," the statement said.

In his report to the congress, Hu said the country would continue its efforts to build a clean government and fight corruption.

According to yesterday's statement, the Party and the government will also strengthen supervision over leaders of State-owned enterprises (SOEs) to help them uphold integrity and stem corruption to promote the healthy development of SOEs.

The meeting urged Party discipline organs and government supervision departments to speed up their work on formulating a plan to improve the anti-corruption system between 2008 and 2012.

Rural development

The meeting also addressed the issue of agriculture and rural development, and stressed the challenges facing the achievement of balanced development between rural and urban areas.

"The Party has always made the development of agriculture, farmers and rural areas a priority... but we must see that there are quite a few challenges," the statement said.

The foundation of agriculture remains weak and the gap between urban and rural development has kept growing, the statement says.

The meeting stressed that much work needs to be done to realize balanced development between urban and rural areas, transform the development pattern of agriculture, improve productivity, ensure the supply of farm produce and keep farmers' incomes growing steadily.

The participants agreed the government would spend more on agriculture and rural development projects and work out more policies to support and benefit agriculture, rural areas and farmers.

Public services in rural areas need further improvement, the statement said.

Special efforts will be made to improve basic healthcare services in the countryside and include more villagers in the social insurance network.

Farmers' right to use farmland should be safeguarded and the interests of migrant workers in cities protected, it said.

The Party and the government will work to promote the self-governance system at the primary level of rural society to help rural residents enjoy more democracy, according to the statement.

At the meeting, a number of policies on agriculture were announced, including more spending on infrastructure and irrigation facilities in rural areas, better conservation of farmland, more new agricultural technologies and support for industrialized farming.

(Xinhua News Agency December 19, 2007)