A FORMER deputy Party chief of Changchun, capital of Jilin Province, has been charged with stealing 25.66 million yuan (US$3.61 million) and receiving 1.49 million yuan in bribes, a newspaper reported yesterday.

Tian Zhong, former deputy Party chief and deputy mayor of Changchun, was convicted of taking the money when he was in charge of a biotechnology project from 1998 to 2006, said the Procuratorial Daily, which is published by the Supreme People??s Procuratorate of China.

Tian was also alleged to have received 1.39 million yuan in bribes when he was in the post from 2000 to 2006.

He was charged with offering a bribe of 100,000 yuan to the deputy chairman of the company operating the project in return for"lending him a hand" during the equity transfer of the company in August, 2005, the report said, without elaborating.

Premier Wen Jiabao has put fighting corruption at the top of his agenda, Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.

A total of 2,111 officials were punished for misconduct between January 2007 and January this year.(SD-Agencies)