Chinese President Hu Jintao instructed the country's leading officials and Party cadres to place "building a harmonious society" top on their work agenda, when addressing a high-level Party seminar Saturday held in Beijing.

"The CPC and the central government have made it an important task to build a harmonious society, which served the fundamental interests of the people," said Hu, who is also general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC).

He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of a 7-day training course, which was offered by the Party School of the CPC Central Committee and attended by major provincial- and ministerial-level leaders.

Hu said those senior officials should meet the goal by adopting a step-by-step approach but he stressed the importance of establishing a fine-tuned management system and the capacity of dealing with serious problems.

Hu said currently it was important to balance the interests between different social groups, to avoid conflicts and to make sure people live a safe and happy life in a politically stable country.

A harmonious society will feature democracy, the rule of law, equity, justice, sincerity, amity and vitality, he said.

Such a society will give full scope to people's talent and creativity, enable all the people to share the social wealth brought by reform and development, and forge an ever closer relationship between the people and government. These things will result in lasting stability and unity, he said.

Chinese Vice President and President of the Party School Zeng Qinghong presided over the opening ceremony. Members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee Wen Jiabao, Wu Guanzheng, and Li Changchun were also present at the seminar.
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(Xinhua News Agency February 20, 2005)