Authorities are racing to close down nearly 600 liaison offices representing regional governments in Beijing, a senior official said yesterday in an online interview.

The liaison office of a city in central China's Shanxi Province was turned into a hotel. Beijing's liaison offices play their corruption-prone roles in lobbying central government departments.

Shang Xiaoting, deputy director of the Government Offices Administration of the State Council, made the remarks after the administration in mid-January issued a circular to step up regulation of the offices.

Earlier media reports had accused the offices of their corruption-prone roles in lobbying central government departments, with a number of poorly supervised offices reportedly acting like financial "black holes" that waste and embezzle public funds.

"It is hugely difficult to make a clean sweep of these institutions within six months," said Shang, referring to the liaison offices set up by regional county-level governments and government departments.

About 582 offices have to be closed by July 19, the circular said.

But liaison offices set by provincial-level governments or agencies will remain. Offices of city-level administrative bodies will also be re-evaluated and approved by higher governments, the circular said.

Shang also dismissed as "baseless" media reports that estimated the full number of liaison offices representing various levels of governments at the thousands or even more than 10,000.