Top officials of the Party and government organizations in Guangdong province will be required to disclose their personal assets, sources close to a provincial government work meeting have said.

Guangdong governor Huang Huahua recently said the provincial government would implement the asset declaration system this year in an effort to enhance the supervision of the Party and government chiefs.

Top officials of the Party and government organizations will also be required to reveal other personal information such as housing, marriage and children who are abroad.

Officials whose sons and daughters have gone abroad for residence will be specially targeted for supervision, according to Huang.

The provincial discipline inspection authorities received 65,358 reports related to officials' corruption and abuse of power last year, with 4,852 officials being put on file for investigation and prosecution, Huang said.

The southern province was in the spotlight of the public and the media last year when Chen Shaoji, former top political advisor of Guangdong, and Xu Zongheng, former mayor of Shenzhen, were investigated for alleged violations of disciplinary regulations.

Media reports claimed that both Chen and Xu had allegedly built up sizable portfolios of illicit properties.

"The declaration system will put officials' personal assets under better supervision," Huang said.

Early last year, the income of more than 1,000 officials in Altay prefecture in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region was made public for the first time.

The move required all county- and division-level officials in the prefecture to declare their assets once a year to improve transparency in government.

The central government and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued two regulations, in 1995 and 2001, requiring officials to declare their income. However, these were limited to officials' salaries and subsidies, without the information being made available to the public.

Beginning earlier this year, officials who are nominated for promotion are required to report their financial assets as part of an anti-corruption drive in Yinchuan, capital of the Ningxia Hui autonomous region.

Cixi in Zhejiang province, and Liuyang and Xiangxiang in Hunan province also require officials to declare their assets.