Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged Party officials to study and abide by the Party Constitution to fight corruption on Friday.

Hu made the remarks at the sixth plenary session of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which opened Thursday.

In the speech, he said that the campaign to improve the Party's work style, build clean government and fight corruption has scored new results and seen sound development momentum.

But he stressed that the campaign, given its arduous and long-term nature, must be carried out unswervingly to ensure the socialist cause advances on a right track.

"A major conclusion can be drawn by summing up the experience of Party building including work style building and anti-corruption drive. That is the whole Party should always study, abide by, implement and safeguard the Party Constitution to ensure that it will always advance in the correct direction."

Hu outlined the tasks for the discipline inspection departments: implementing the scientific concept of development, addressing outstanding problems that hurt the public interests, intensifying anti-corruption education of leading Party cadres, severely punishing violators of Party discipline and those abusing powers for personal gains, cracking down on commercial bribery, and sticking to reform to push anti-corruption efforts by institutional improvement and innovation.

Discipline inspection departments at all levels should take a leading role in studying and implementing the Party Constitution, resolutely curb all practices that go against the Constitution and properly handling the relations between punishing and preventing corruption, he said.

Besides Hu, Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, also attended the meeting, which was chaired by Wu Guanzheng, also secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
 
(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2006)