国内英语新闻:Senior Chinese leader urges officials to listen to public opinion in anti-graft work

BEIJING, Sept. 25 (Xinhua) -- Senior Chinese leader He Guoqiang has urged the country' s anti-graft officials to make more efforts to solve prominent corruption-related problems by taking into account the views of the public.

He, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, made his remarks at an anti-corruption work conference Saturday.

He called for more effective anti-corruption efforts to win the trust of the public while promoting social harmony.

He also stressed better enforcement of laws and Party discipline, along with relentless punishment of any violation.

According to a statement released after the conference, the country's public spending on government officials' overseas visits, transportation and official receptions this year was reduced by 5.75 billion yuan (858 million U.S. dollars) from last year in a campaign to cut extravagant public spending.

Anti-corruption departments have also launched a nationwide examination into the problem of "little coffers", which are private accounts for extracting public funds. More than 24,900 cases of "little coffers" involving public money totaling over 12.24 billion yuan had been found, and a total of 1,035 officials connected to these funds have been punished, according to the statement.

Also on Saturday, a statement issued by the anti-corruption department of the Supreme People's Procuratorate said procuratorates around the country had, from 2009 to August 2010, dealt with 1,715 embezzlement and bribery cases and 263 cases of duty dereliction in the use of state-owned land resources.

A total of 186 officials above county level were involved in the cases, the statement said.