Xu Fangming, former director of the finance department of China's Ministry of Finance, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday for taking bribes.

The Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court found that Xu took more than 2.14 million yuan (about US$267,500) in bribes between 1997 and 2000.

According to the court, in 1997, Xu helped the head of an investment consultancy firm, Han Bing, to win a contract worth more than 400 million yuan (US$50 million) for a car leasing business from the Agricultural Development Bank of China. Han was awarded more than 7 million yuan (US$875,000) in commission from the leasing firm.

In 1998, Xu also helped Han to sell office space to the Shenzhen branch of the Agricultural Development Bank of China for which Han was paid more than 2 million yuan (US$250,000).

In return for the two deals, Han gave Xu 200,000 yuan (US$25,000) in four installments.

According to the court, Xu also accepted over 1 million yuan (US$128,000) in bribes in three installments from another company to help it seek gains in 1999 and 2000.

The court said he still had the right to appeal.

As China intensifies anti-corruption efforts, a quite few high government officials have been removed from office for corruption and brought to court.

In earlier September, China made public 20 severe cases of bribery in the construction sector, all involved government employees in charge of urban planning, project approval and evaluation of contractors' financial assessments.

By the end of July, China had punished a total of 416 civil servants amid a national move against commercial bribery which began in the middle of last year.

Wu Guanzheng, Secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, emphasizes enhancing fighting corruption at its source in his article to be published Saturday.

"The crackdown on corruption cases has to be maintained, but efforts also need to be made to build an effective corruption prevention and control mechanism," says Wu, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2006)