Beijing promises "clean" Games after graft scandal

BEIJING, Dec 13 (Reuters) Beijing today promised to host a ''clean'' Olympics in 2008, a day after the ruling Communist Party announced the expulsion of a senior official in charge of Olympic construction for taking millions of yuan in bribes.

Liu Zhihua, a former vice mayor of Beijing, will face criminal proceedings after Party watchdog, the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, found he had abused his office and helped his mistress ''seek profit'', the official Xinhua news agency said.

The officer was in charge of building Olympic venues as well as the 40 billion dollar upgrade of the city's infrastructure.

''We must tighten auditing and monitoring efforts on the preparatory work of the Olympics to prevent all potential problems,'' Xinhua quoted Liu Qi, Beijing Communist Party chief as saying, citing Wednesday's Beijing Daily.

''Efforts must be made to ensure that staff members involved in the Olympic preparations and venue construction projects remain on track,'' Liu who is also chairman of the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games said.

China has launched a huge corruption drive over the last few years with nearly 50,000 officials prosecuted and punished up to the end of 2005.

Hundreds of anti-corruption officials have been probing officials in Beijing in recent months, sources have previously told Reuters, as investigations into the misuse of pension funds continue in China's commercial capital, Shanghai.

In September, several senior Shanghai officials including Party boss Chen Liangyu were sacked for channelling pension funds into illegal investments and helping to enrich crony companies and relatives.

REUTERS SAM BST1416