Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji Monday urged government officials at all levels to show greater solicitude for people and do a good job of handling matters that having a bearing on people's immediate interests, instead of engaging in empty talk.

At a group discussion attended by Anhui deputies to the 9th National People's Congress (NPC), in session since early March, Zhu said: "Government officials at all levels must remember that they are servants of the people and that they should do their best to help people overcome their difficulties."

Zhu, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee's Political Bureau, urged governments at all levels to pay attention to safety in production and to timely finding and removing hidden troubles that lead to accidents.

The premier stressed that agriculture, the rural area and the question of farmers are always basic issues in the process of reform and economic development. To realize a sustained development of the rural economy and social stability in rural China, it is necessary to put reducing farmers' burden high on the agendas of governments, especially at a time when farmers' income has increased at a slow pace, he said.

He said that a tax-for-fee reform in rural areas is a major measure to reduce farmers' burden. The premier called on Anhui to do a good job of implementing the tax-for-fees reform on a trial basis and accumulate experience for the reform's nationwide implementation.

Zhu called on continuing to speed up the construction of water conservancy and control projects, saying investment in this sector must increase.

In the next few years, the banks of the Yangtze River should be consolidated to reach designed flood-control standards so that people along the river will no longer suffer from flooding, he said.