The discipline watchdog of the Communist Party of China vowed yesterday in Beijing to intensify the inspection and education of all Party members to root out "loopholes allowing the presence of corruption."

However, the graft battle is a "long, complicated and arduous" process, said a report of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC.

The CCDI published the full text of its report submitted to the 17th CPC National Congress, which closed on October 21.

"The effective prevention of corruption is in line with the public's feeling and the life of the Party, and is a significant political task the Party should always be aware of," said the report.

The report acknowledged that corruption can not be eliminated "in the short term" as the country is still in a "primary stage of socialism" with the economic system, social structure and people's thoughts all "undergoing profound changes."

It says that during the next five years the Party will continue to improve the style of its work, uphold integrity and intensify its fight against corruption by "addressing both its symptoms and causes."

The CPC will strengthen its crackdown on nepotism, address "outstanding problems infringing upon public interests," push forward reform and enhance supervision and penalties over dereliction of duty, power abuse and acts of "trading power for sex or money."

The report said 518,484 CPC members were punished according to Party discipline from December 2002 to June 2007.

Summing up the CCDI's work in the past five years, the report said it has made major progress in "digging out graft cases, improving supervision, curbing commercial bribery and halting behavior that harms the interests of the people."

From December 2002 to June 2007, the CPC's disciplinary organs across the country registered 677,924 cases and settled 679,846, including those registered before 2002, the report said.

In the past five years, the CPC has also disciplined several senior officials including former Shanghai Party head Chen Liangyu, former deputy secretary of the CPC Shandong Provincial Committee Du Shicheng, and former head of the State Food and Drug Administration Zheng Xiaoyu.

Zheng was sentenced to death in May by a court after being found guilty of taking 6.49 million yuan (US$850,000) in bribes and dereliction of duty. He was executed two months later.