China's top prosecutor Han Zhubin said in Beijing Friday that procuratorial bodies across the country will intensify efforts in cracking down crimes, especially those committed by officials, strengthen judicial supervision and further streamline procuratorial mechanism.

Han, procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate ( SPP), defined the most important task for procuratorates in the year 2000 as "to maintain social stability.

He made the pledge when delivering his annual report on the work of the SPP to the ongoing Third Session of the Ninth National People's Congress.

Procuratorates will adhere to the "strike-hard" policy, which means swift and harsh punishments, in dealing with criminal offenses, he said, and enhance their capability in appropriately tackling social conflicts.

In order to deal hard blows at the country's graft-busters, procuratorial bodies will place crackdown on embezzlement and neglecting of duties on the top of the agenda and focus on cases involving high-level officials and large sum of money, according to Han.

"Whoever involved shall be investigated to the very end and brought to justice, with no exceptions, especially in the cases of taking bribes and conniving at smugglers," he said.

Han went on to say that the SPP has promulgated several major reforms in optimizing the work of procuratorates.

Under those reforms, prosecutors have to make public on their progress in investigation and prosecution of "major and important" cases, inform defendants, criminal suspects on their legal rights before interrogation; individual prosecutors are entitled to more power as well as given more responsibility for their performances; and prosecutors and officials are subject to new competitive mechanism; the SPP and many provincial procuratorates have invited experts of various fields as counsels.

Han said that in the past two years, the SPP has launched massive nationwide drives in educating prosecutors and enhancing their political and proficiency levels.

Thanks to these efforts, 617 prosecutors were investigated for violations of the law and discipline, 60.2 percent less than in 1998, Han said. Fifty-five of them were brought to court in new capacity of defendants.

Last year, 1,886 unqualified prosecutors were transferred, 2, 156 officials in 1,062 local procuratorates removed and replaced by new hands; and another 89 officials were penalized for inappropriate management measures which gave rise to serious violations of related laws and regulations in their work units, statistics show.