Bribery in urban construction projects accounted for nearly 40 percent of all the 6,277 business bribery cases Chinese prosecutors dealt with in the first six months of 2009, according to the Supreme People's Procuratorate Thursday.

The more than 6,000 cases involved 918 million yuan (about 134 million US dollars) in total, the SPP's anti-corruption and anti-bribery bureau said.

About 2,000 of all the cases were prosecuted and 96.7 percent of them led to convictions, a bureau official said on condition of anonimity.

Data released by provinces and cities for 2008 showed the industry has always been vulnerable to bribery.

In 2009, prosecutors across the country stepped up checking on bribery in the businesses of construction, land transfer, property trade, insurance and bank credit as the public voiced strong dissastifaction over the transparency of these industries.

A total of 46 prefecture-level and 751 county-level officials were punished, accounting for nearly 12 percent of the total, the official said, without revealing the details.

China's Criminal Law rules that government employees who take bribes of more than 100,000 yuan would be sentenced to over 10 years in prison and those who commit more serious crimes might face life imprisonment or execution.

About 76 percent of all the bribes were "major or serious cases" each involving 50,000 yuan or more, the official said.

More than 77 percent of the cases were charged with taking bribes and 19 percent with paying bribes, the official said.

(Xinhua News Agency September 4, 2009)