Chinese courts have disciplined a total of 972 court workers for violating disciplines and laws, and 104 of them have been found with criminal offenses, China's top judge Xiao Yang said Monday.

Addressing a national conference attended by presidents of the country's province-level courts, Xiao, president of China's Supreme People's Court, said the country's court system has made progress in fighting corruption and improving work style.

The general public has been the biggest beneficiary of a just judicial system and the biggest victim of unjust judicial practices by some court officers, he said.

Xiao called for continued efforts to improve law enforcement and crack down on corruption within the court system, while improving its prevention and disciplinary mechanism against corruption staff members.

He vowed to remove those judges from the judicial system who were found to have perverted law in ruling, asking for or accepting bribes or involved in other illegal activities.

(Xinhua News Agency December 16, 2003)