Nearly 15,000 police officers will be patrolling the streets of China's capital during the upcoming annual sessions of China's legislature and its top advisory body.

The latter group, the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, opens its yearly meeting today, and the National People's Congress kicks off its session on Sunday. Both meetings are being held at the Great Hall of the People in downtown Beijing.

Regular police officers will be assisted by 620,000 citizens who have volunteered to help maintain order.

"In the first 20 days of February, city police solved 1,640 criminal cases and detained 1,352 criminal suspects. The city now enjoys a stable and sound public order," a leading official with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Department told the Beijing News yesterday.

The official also noted that a thorough safety check was conducted across the city to eliminate "all hidden dangers of fire, explosion and other safety hazards."

Also yesterday, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security denied allegations that the police are "persuading" petitioners who have come to Beijing to seek justice to go back home.

"For law-abiding petitioners from outside Beijing with justified reasons, the public security departments will neither impose any restrictions nor persuade them to go back to their hometown," said Xu Hu, vice director of the public order management bureau under the ministry.

But Xu added that as usual, officers will "persuade" some people who have been "idling in Beijing for a long time without a proper job, fixed residence or stable income" to go back to their home provinces.

"This is aimed at reducing certain factors that might harm public order," he said.

The twin national meetings will run for nearly two weeks.

CPPCC spokesman Wu Jianmin said the hottest issues facing the advisory group at this session are the country's 11th Five-Year Development Program, efforts to promote rural growth and coordinated economic development across all regions, reforms to the country's health-care system and production safety.