State Councilor Hua Jianmian on Thursday urged leading cadres to improve their ideology, leadership and lifestyles, and prevent corruption from its source.

Hua said at a discipline inspection meeting of central state organs that 2007 is an important year for the country and the Communist Party of China (CPC).

"We should strengthen Party building with an emphasis on improving the ethics of leading cadres, make efforts to improve central governmental departments' work and push forward the construction of a socialist harmonious society, so we are ready for the meeting of the 17th CPC National Congress."

He asked cadres to fight commercial bribery and to be frugal, hard-working and oppose extravagance and waste. "Public resources should be used to meet people's urgent demands, rather than be used for vanity projects."

He said officials should seek the truth and be pragmatic in their work and put employment, income distribution, social security, medical care and education at the forefront of their work.

Source: Xinhua