Six officials at provincial or ministerial level were sentenced after being convicted of corruption, bribe-taking, abuse of public funds and dereliction of duty last year, said Xiao Yang, president of the Supreme People's Court (SPC), in a report in Beijing on Wednesday.
  
According to Xiao's report delivered to the Third Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, a total of 772 government officials involving in job-related crimes were given a verdict, including 98 at prefecture level.
  
The court system, in total, dealt with 24,184 cases involving government officials' graft, bribe-taking and other corrupt activities in 2004, increased by 5.21 percent, said the chief judge.

(Xinhua News Agency March 9, 2005)