66 people employed in China's 159 central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) were convicted of criminal or commercial bribery in 2006, a senior official said Wednesday.

Jia Fuxing, an official with the State-owned Assets Supervisionand Administration Commission (SASAC), said central SOEs launched an anti-commercial bribery campaign last year, aimed mainly at SOE property right transactions.

A total of 1,198 property rights transactions worth some 62 billion yuan (8 billion US dollars) were audited.

According to Jia, 76 commercial bribery cases -- involving 18 million yuan and 106 SOE employees -- have been investigated sinceMay. Besides the 66 criminals, twenty-eight people received disciplinary sanctions.

In 2006, SASAC and government departments registered and investigated 1,800 cases concerning the reform and operation of central SOEs, convicting 349 SOE employees and retrieving economiclosses of 493 billion yuan, said Jia.

Source:Xinhua