The Chinese government has punished 1,488 officials involved in illegal land development affairs, the Ministry of Supervision said on Friday.

At a briefing on nationwide actions to combat land use malpractice connected with industrial parks, the ministry said that 927 of them had been given Party disciplinary sanctions and 561 administrative penalties.

About 22,300 cases of illegal land use have been identified and so far half of them have been dealt with, the source said.

Inspectors found that 24,900 sq km of land had been illegally allocated to various industrial parks, almost two thirds of the total land given to them.

Keen to notch up impressive economic development and revenue figures, some local governments were happy to give land to developers, ignoring the central government's policy to slow down investment in fixed assets.

Across the country, the government has managed to clear compensation arrears of 17.55 billion yuan (US$2.31 billion) for residents caught up in land seizure cases since 1999.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2007)