China's personnel authority on Thursday issued rules to ensure fair, transparent enrollment of civil servants.

Government positions have become increasingly popular among job hunters.

The rules, released by the personnel ministries of the Communist Party of China and the central government, ban employers of civil servants from setting "requirements that are unrelated to the nature of posts".

In 2005, the government issued a health standard that included Hepatitis B carriers among eligible candidates for the civil service and dropped old weight and height requirements.

The standard said Hepatitis B carriers were eligible to work for the government so long as the infection did not progress to the disease stage.

Despite this, Chinese job hunters, including those seeking government posts, have long complained of discrimination on the grounds of sex, age, religion, race or physical disability.

"Enrollment of civil servants has to follow the principles of being open, fair, competitive and selective, with dual consideration of the applicants' virtue and ability," said the rules.

Government jobs are closed to those with criminal records or sacked ex-civil servants, said the rules.

Applicants who are caught cheating in exams or violating recruitment rules would be banned from applying for official posts for five years.

Since China began organizing civil servant recruitment examinations in 1994, civil service has become one of the most popular professions of the country's job seekers because it offers a stable income, social status and excellent welfare insurance.

In 2007, more than 530,000 applicants competed for 12,700 government jobs -- 42 people competing for each job on average.

This year, more than 800,000 applicants will sit for the civil service examination in December, according to a statement on the ministry website.

The most popular position, a post with the Ministry of Agriculture, attracted more than 3,500 applicants, the website said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 23, 2007)