A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Monday said research into the sinicization of Marxism should be beefed up in order to resolve important theoretical and practical issues.

Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on Monday attended a conference on Marxist theory.

He said that since the effort to sinicize Marxism began in 2004substantive progress had been made. A contingent of research specialists had made their appearance and some new textbooks published.

He said future research should combine basic theoretical research with significant real-life issues in order to solve China's practical problems.

Research fellows should take an innovative approach and enrich the theory with Chinese practice, he said.

(Xinhua News Agency February 6, 2007)