High-level Party inspection teams have proved effective in busting corruption, the country's disciplinary watchdog said yesterday.

Nationwide inspections, which began in 2003, have uncovered more than 900 cases of corruption and disciplinary violation involving officials above the county level, Gan Yisheng, spokesman for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the Communist Party of China (CPC), told a press conference yesterday.

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Criminal suspects have been handed over to judicial authorities.

In addition, more than 1,000 officials of a similar rank have been reprimanded and counseled, he said.

Gan said inspection tours had "obvious effects" due to clear-cut targets - leaders of Party committees at various levels.

Each inspection team is led by a ministerial-level official and typically camps in a region for two or three months. Members hold talks, often one-on-one, with a large number of local officials and set up a special mailbox or a hotline to receive public feedback.

They don't probe any case and only report their findings to the CCDI and the Party's Organization Department.

The teams have covered all the provincial level Party committees in the first round, and are ready to begin the second, Gan said.

They have also inspected some key commercial banks, State-asset managing firms and key State-owned enterprises.

All provincial Party committees have completed the first round of their inspections of cities and prefectures, he said.