The Ministry of Public Security will issue specific measure in the near future to reward individuals for providing information which lead to arrest of people who are involved in drugs-related crimes.

Public information has become one of the most important ways for facilitating the crackdown of illegal drugs cases, an official with the Ministry's Drug Control Bureau said on Wednesday.

Public information has contributed to the crack of 968 illegal drugs cases with a total of 1,104 people arrested in the first seven months of this year, according to the official.

These cases has led to the seizure of 1,273.8 kilograms of drugs and 7 million yuan (around US$875,000) of illegal fund.

In April 2005, China launched a People's War on Drugs, calling on the public to report drugs-related crimes and offering rewards for information that led to the arrest of traffickers.

Ten provinces, regions and municipalities including Yunnan and Shanghai have already established a pilot rewarding system.

And the police have so far given more than 600,000 yuan (US$75,000) to the public for their information on illegal drug crimes, according to the Ministry.

In southwest China's Yunnan Province, one of the worst-plagued areas by drug-trafficking in the country, police investigated 694 cases with the help of the public from January to August this year, seizing 1,008 kilograms of drugs.

(Xinhua News Agency November 16, 2006)