Discipline inspectors and law enforcement agencies in Shanghai dealt with 1,468 commercial bribery cases, involving 495 million yuan (about US$64.3 million) in this leading metropolis of China in the 15 months ending April this year, authorities said on Thursday.

Most of the cases involved construction projects, land sales, trade of property rights, purchase and sale of medicines and medical equipment, government purchasing, exploitation and distribution of natural resources, according to the national office on fighting against commercial bribery under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Officials in Shanghai's administrative departments, 106,000 enterprises and state-run organizations have voluntarily turned in accepted bribes worth 17 million yuan so far, the office said. However, the office didn't say how many people were involved in these cases.

China has dealt with 21,889 cases of commercial bribery involving 5.276 billion yuan (US$676 million) up to last April since it started an anti-corruption campaign in 2005, according to official statistic.

(Xinhua News Agency June 15, 2007)