Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping on Tuesday asked county heads to accept their responsibilities and take a practical attitude towards rural reform and development.

County-level Communist Party leaders had a major role to play in reform and development, Xi told a national training session of county chiefs at the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

The Decision on Major Issues Concerning the Advancement of Rural Reform and Development, the policy that allows farmers more freedom to trade land use rights, posed greater responsibilities for county leaders, he said.

County heads were duty-bound to push forward rural reforms and implement government decisions and measures, he said.

In China, every level of administrative division has a local CPC committee headed by a secretary.

Almost 2,000 CPC county secretaries are taking a workshop on promoting rural reform and development at the Party school and another four academies across the country.

(Xinhua News Agency November 26, 2008)