China's procuratorate authorities had prosecuted 3,391 public officials from April 2008 to last November for dereliction of duty in cases that caused damage to the natural environment and waste of energy resources.

These cases were in various fields including land, forest, mining, city construction plan, water and electricity, road and traffic and environmental supervision, as revealed at a joint meeting held here Friday by the Supreme People's Procuratorate and other related departments.

These cases led to the death of 3,591 people with 354 seriously injured. The direct economic loss amounted to 4.867 billion yuan (US$710 million), according to a statement released after the meeting.

According to the statement, grassroots officials shoulder important duties and are targets of bribery.

In addition, more than 7,000 cases of officials' dereliction of duty and infringement on citizens' rights were investigated in 2009. A total of 6,466 officials were convicted.

Among the total, 3,175 cases were deemed "serious" or "major".

In 2010, procuratorate departments across the country will focus on duty dereliction cases in construction projects and those harming judicial justness, said the statement.

Procuratorate departments were urged to make special efforts in broadening sources for investigation clues, improve the ability to discover crimes and overcome outside interference.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2010)