China's prosecutors have been set a 60-day deadline to deal with and respond to complaints from the public.

A new regulation issued by the Supreme People's Procuratorate also requires procuratorate offices to acknowledge and assign complaints within seven days.

Procurator-generals can approve extensions up to a maximum of 30 days if the cases are too complicated to be handled in 60 days, under the regulation.

Petitioners should be informed of the results in writing and can request a reconsideration if they are not satisfied.

Procurator-generals should hold hearings for petitioners at least 12 times a year for at least half day each time, under the regulation.

The information of petitioners should be kept confidential.

Those in charge of complaints will face penalties if they fail to handle the cases in time, abuse their power, impair the legal rights of petitioners or leak information.

Procuratorates are in charge of dealing with complaints about courts and procuratorates, work-related accusations against civil servants, public security departments and prisons, and suggestions for prosecutors.

(Xinhua News Agency May 14, 2007)