The Ministry of Personnel announced Sunday that a total of 640,000 people sat for the annual qualification tests for national-level public servants.

The exams were organized in 38 cities throughout the country, including Beijing, Shanghai and other municipalities, as well as provincial capitals, the ministry said.

The ministry said it will publicize qualification scores for recruiting public servants this year by late January 2008. Individual test scores could also be checked on an official website.

A recent survey organized by the China Youth Daily showed that 73.6 percent of the polled 17,330 said they were favorable to be public servants.

(Xinhua News Agency December 9, 2007)