A former senior regional land official in northwest China has been officially charged with taking millions of yuan in bribes and holding a large amount of suspect property.

Wang Yingfu, 55, former deputy director of the Land and Resources Administration of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is accused of taking bribes when approving land deals and distributing construction projects, according to the People's Procuratorate of Zhongwei City, Ningxia.

Wang is also alleged to possess property worth millions of yuan that he cannot account for, said prosecutors.

Wang allegedly took the bribes from 1999 to 2003, when he worked as director of Ningxia Land Resources Bureau, deputy director of Ningxia Land and Resources Administration and chairman of Ningxia Disabled Persons Association.

Wang disappeared on Jan. 23 after prosecutors began their investigation into him. He was arrested in Beijing on Feb. 3 and officially detained by police on Feb. 14.

He is to stand on trial early next year.

China has been strengthening supervision on land development, an area regarded by experts "power and capital intensive" and a breeding ground for corruption, given land transactions are the most effective way for local governments to boost economic returns.

In September, the central authorities gave serious warnings to two senior Henan officials, Li Xinmin, secretary of the Provincial Political and Judiciary Committee of the CPC, and Wang Wenchao, party chief of the CPC Zhengzhou city committee, for illegal expansion of a post secondary school campus on to farmland.

In August, the central government criticized the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Regional Government for failing to stop an unauthorized power station project.

(Xinhua News Agency December 14, 2006)