China's Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) on Friday pledged to lay a firm hand upon corruption in quake relief and help set up a preventive system against graft.

Procuratorates of all levels would prioritize investigation of corruption cases related to quake relief, especially government officials who stole or misused relief funds or breached their duty, said a SPP statement.

It also planned to cooperate with other relative departments to set up effective supervision and prevention systems and close loopholes in relief funds and material management, the statement said.

Domestic and foreign donations had reached 39.92 billion yuan (5.79 billion U.S. dollars) by Friday and about 10.67 billion was forwarded to the quake area.

How to well manage such a huge sum of money and let it really benefit victims has been commonly talked about by the media and ordinary Chinese citizens.

He Guoqiang, China's top anti-graft official of the Communist Party of China (CPC), vowed on Wednesday to hand out "quick, strict and harsh penalties" on those found withholding or embezzling quake relief funds and supplies.

He, the CPC's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) secretary, also detailed measures to check wrongdoing and illegal behavior.

The SPP said in the statement it would step up research on possible legal problems in quake relief and contribute to judicial explanations.

(Xinhua News Agency May 31, 2008)