The top watchdog of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Monday vowed to step up its fight against corruption to ensure the Party improves its capacity to govern the nation.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection made the decision Monday at the commission's Fourth Plenary Session held in Beijing.

A total of 113 members of the commission were present at the meeting. The session discussed and passed a report made by Wu Guanzheng, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, on behalf of the commission's standing committee.

The watchdog called on the Party to improve the work style of the Party, build a clean government and fight corruption.

The watchdogs were urged to increase their ability to supervise leading Party cadres, enforce Party disciplines, expand inner-Party democracy and protect the rights and interests of Party members, according to a communique released after the meeting.

The document called for the establishment of a mechanism to punish and prevent corruption through education, institutional arrangements and supervision, which is and will be the major task for the Party to fight corruption at present and a period of time to come.

The mechanism should adapt to the country's market economic system, according to the communique.

The plenum set the outstanding problems the general public complain about as priorities for the commission to deal with in a bid to curb the unhealthy tendency of infringing on the interests of the general public.

To crack down harder on corrupt officials, the plenum stressed the need to give priority to uncovering offences committed by leading Party and government departments and leading officials for personal gains through the abuse of power.

The Party on Sunday announced it had expelled Tian Fengshan, former minister of land and resources, from the CPC Central Committee and deprived him of his Party membership on corruption charges.

The decision was based on a report of an investigation into Tian's case by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, which accused Tian of abusing power and taking bribes worth 5 million yuan (US$600,000).

(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2004)