Just days after Shanghai's pension fund scandal snowballed to net the top state statistician, China's president and key judicial officials took advantage of an international anti-graft conference to demonstrate their determination to fight corruption.

Altogether 67,505 government officials have been punished in China for corruption in less than four years since 2003, with more than 17,505 prosecuted and sanctioned in the first eight months of 2006 alone.

Revealing the latest procuratorate statistics, Wang Zhenchuan, deputy procurator-general of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, on Monday said China's anti-graft fight had made progress. "With improvements to the graft prevention system, corruption is on the decline in many sectors."

But he did not provide details of any corruption case when addressing hundreds of representatives from international anti-corruption bodies at the five-day Beijing conference that will last till Thursday.

With Chinese authorities hosting the First Annual Conference and General Meeting of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), Chinese President Hu Jintao attended the conference opening on Sunday and delivered a keynote speech.

"We treat the fight against corruption as a priority, a pressing task that has great influence on the overall development of the country, and which affects the fundamental interests of the Chinese people, equality, justice, social harmony and stability," Hu said.

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