Xu Fangming, the former head of the banking division of the Chinese Ministry of Finance, has been charged with taking bribes equivalent to 2.14 million yuan (US$267,500), say sources with the No.1 Intermediate People's Court of Beijing City.

Trial of Xu will be carried out in a separate chosen date later, said the court sources.

The prosecutors allege that Xu, aged 49, took bribes in Chinese currency yuan and U.S. dollars between 1997 and 2000, from two sources when he served as deputy head of the ministry's business and banking division, the state treasury bond and banking division, and head of the banking division division successively.

After taking bribes from Han Bing, the legal representative of Beijing Cheng'aoda Commercial Investment and Consulting Co. Ltd. and another allegedly briber known as Liu Min, Xu was accused of taking the advantage of his work posts to pursue interests on behalf of the companies the two bribers represented, according an indictment against Xu.

Both Han Bing and Liu Min are dealt with separately, said the court sources.

Xu, a native of Chifeng, a city in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, was detained by the police on June 16, 2005 for suspected bribe-taking but was formally arrested half a month later.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2006)