China's central State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have been told to root out corruption before 2010.

The order from the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) comes two months after it demanded the central enterprises to investigate bribery cases themselves within six months, the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported on Monday.

The Commission said recently that the construction of an honest working environment was a key task for the central enterprises.

There were 169 central SOEs in China with combined assets of 10.6 trillion yuan (1.325 trillion U.S. dollars) by the end of December 2005. Their net assets stood at 4.6 trillion yuan.

Source: Xinhua