Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday urged the government audit arm to play a larger role in monitoring macroeconomic policies and pushing forward the anti-corruption campaign next year.

"The auditing duties carried out by the National Audit Office (NAO) have played a positive role in recent years," Wen said.

Audit offices had helped save 5.02 billion yuan in government funds and 84.1 billion yuan in project investment over the past five years.

More than 8,300 cases involving 12,000 people were identified by audit offices in the anti-corruption crackdown, which made it possible to avert some losses, Wen said. He didn't say exactly how much had been saved.

More than 5,000 officials were disciplined or went on trial following the audits of 160,000-strong Chinese officials over the past five years.

Wen asked the NAO to focus on monitoring the execution of macroeconomic policies in 2008 so that these policies could be efficiently implemented to achieve sound and rapid economic development.

He also called on the NAO to play a key role in anti-corruption efforts and show no leniency with major violations.

Public construction projects and those directly related to the public welfare should also be a major target of audit offices next year, Wen said. He also urged the NAO to improve its credibility and become more forceful in enforcement.

The NAO was established in September 1983 along with local units at the provincial, municipal and county levels. The Audit Law of China was formally promulgated in August 1994 and went into effect on January 1, 1995.

(Xinhua News Agency December 25, 2007)