The government is to further strengthen administrative services in the judicial field, reform the management of prisons, improve the management of lawyers, and assist in the efforts to stipulate specific laws for notarial offices, which used to be part of the department of justice in local governments.

These remarks were made by Luo Gan, China's top official on law affairs, Monday, while he was speaking at a national conference attended by directors of provincial justice departments from all over the country.

Luo, a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau and secretary of the Political Science and Law Committee of the CPC Central Committee, called for bringing the role of administrative arbitration into full play to settle disputes at the grass roots.

The official urged lawyers to provide ordinary people with high-quality and efficient services. Efforts should be made to resolve difficulties for ordinary people in taking cases to court, he noted.

Present at the meeting were Zhou Yongkang, a member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, and Jia Chunwang, president of the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

(Xinhua News Agency January 6, 2004)