China will step up its efforts to crack down on drugs, gambling and online crimes to create a clean social environment, said Chief Justice Xiao Yang on Thursday.

At the national meeting of higher people's courts' presidents, the president of the Supreme People's Court promised "severe punishments" for such crimes and ordered local courts to play their role in criminal case judgment to maintain social stability and harmony.

According to the 2006 China drug fighting report by the National Narcotics Control Commission, drug use and trafficking have become the source of many crimes as drug users scrape together money from drug trafficking, theft, robber and prostitution.

In some regions unspecified in the report, 60 to 80 percent of robbery or theft cases are committed by drug users.

In addition, about 1.3 million gamblers are checked by Chinese police every year and the number is rising.

Criminals are also increasingly using the Internet to cheat people out of money or threaten online security.

Xiao also said that local courts should clamp down on crimes jeopardizing state security, violent crimes like murder, robbery and kidnapping, terrorism, mafia crimes, corruption cases and crimes related to serious safety accidents.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)