A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday said it was time to step up the fight against commercial bribery.

He Yong, head of a group on combating commercial bribery, said at a meeting here that self-examination and self-correction are needed in the fight against commercial bribery.

Two documents containing new measures were discussed and approved by a meeting of the central commercial bribery control group held Wednesday in Beijing.

He, also deputy secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), asked anti-bribery officials to devote more efforts to investigating cases that trample on the public's vital interests.

"The government will further open administrative affairs to public scrutiny, and develop an effective long-term mechanism to fight commercial bribery," he said.

Commercial bribery usually refers to bribes from companies and often involves a firm paying money to government officials for special favors.

China has dealt with 21,889 cases of commercial bribery involving 5.276 billion yuan (US$676 million) since it started a clean-up campaign in 2005, according to the latest official statistic.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)