Chinese president Hu Jintao tops the "ten most popular guests among netizens" in a poll on the People's Daily website people.com.cn, the site reported Wednesday.

Voting began on December 12 and had received millions of netizens' votes by December 28, the report said.

The poll was prompted by the rapidly increasing exchanges on the Internet between government officials and the public in 2008, according to the report.

Also on the list are Lu Yongxiang, president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Yan Junqi, chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy; Zhao Hongzhu, secretary of Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China; Zhou Ji, minister of education, and others.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2009)