The people should be involved in the enacting of laws, by means of soliciting their opinions, conducting surveys among them and holding hearings on the legislative matters, he said.

Li made these remarks at a panel discussion of Guangdong's provincial delegation of NPC deputies to the current First Session of the 10th NPC.

Li Changchun, a Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and Zhang Dejiang, member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and secretary of the CPC provincial committee of Guangdong, took part in the panel discussion.

In his speech, Li Peng urged legislatures at various levels to emancipate their minds, engage themselves in practice, and go on making exploration and innovations, under the leadership of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws.

China is amid its efforts to build a socialist country governed by law, Li said.

The leadership of the Communist Party and the role of the People's Congress are inter-related, he explained, noting that "the work of the People's Congress must adhere to Party leadership as the Party is the force at the core leading all our causes forward."

After more than two decades of reform and opening to the outside world, tremendous changes have occurred in China's economic and social life thanks to CPC leadership, Li said.

He urged people's congresses at various levels to foster a strong sense of Party leadership and accept it self-conscientiously and, meanwhile, Party organizations at all levels should be good at bringing the role of People's Congress into full play and safeguard the authority of the National People's Congress as the state power.

The top legislator praised the provincial people's congress for the achievements it had made over the past five years. He expressed the hope that Guangdong would take the lead in economic progress and in the administration of the province in accordance with law. "It is essential for Guangdong to achieve its modernization," Li said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2003)