China Wednesday applauded the achievements of a number of model procurators and procuratorates, in hopes of further improving the work of the nation's prosecutors.

Wei Jianxing, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, urged the nation's procurators to "fully carry out their role of supervision and to provide strengthened judicial guarantee and legal services for China's reform, development and stability."

Wei's remarks were followed by State Councilor Luo Gan's, who is in charge of the country's law-related affairs.

Giving credit for improvements made to date, Luo called for more efforts to train a contingent of procurators of higher caliber.

"The quality of the procurators not only has a direct influence on the just and strict implementation of laws, but also affects whether they can safeguard reform, development and stability," said Luo.

A total of 112 procuratorates and 200 procurators were commended at the ceremony.

China launched a one-year nationwide campaign in spring 1998 to rectify the misconducts of judges and procurators, in the wake of increasing complaints about their proficiency and ethics.

Procuratorates stepped up the disciplining of the nation's 160,000 procurators last year, continuing efforts after the campaign officially ended.

As a result, China has seen a steady improvement in prosecutors' proficiency as well as increased adherence to rules and regulations, said Han Zhubin, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.