The Chinese government will strengthen its efforts to promote clean government and combat corruption, according to a government work report delivered by Premier Wen Jiabao at a parliament session on Thursday.

Wen admitted in the report "corruption remains a serious problem in some localities, departments and areas."

China will focus on standardizing institutions and limiting the exercise of power, and prevent and punish corruption at its source in areas and links prone to corruption, Wen said at the Second Session of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), or the parliament.

China will also resolutely investigate and prosecute corruption cases and punish corruptionists in accordance with the law, he added.

China must build a pragmatic, clean and efficient government to win the trust of the people, Wen said.

Just five days before the NPC session started, Mi fengjun, a senior legislator in China's northeastern Jilin Province, was dismissed from the national legislature for taking bribes.

A total of 4,960 Chinese officials above the county level were punished for corruption in a year ending November 2008, data show.

(Xinhua News Agency March 5, 2009)