Even though the poor workplace safety record has not seen marked improvement on Mr Li's watch, with at least 100,000 people killed each year in traffic- and work-related accidents, the 63-year-old technocrat's tough image has gained him popular support.

He has not been afraid to exhibit his abhorrence of vested interests behind the never-ending series of deadly accidents and has scolded local authorities for their indifference to safety rules in tense bursts of anger. He is reputedly the minister who swears the most in the cabinet.

His previous job was certainly not an enviable one. Dubbed the busiest minister, he had little choice but to travel extensively across the mainland to handle the aftermath of one disaster after another with his trouble-shooting team of administration colleagues, often with just a few hours' notice.

He remarked half-jokingly a few months after he was made the first minister of the upgraded ministry-level safety watchdog in 2005 that he feared nothing but the ringing of his phone at midnight.

More than 100,000 people died in workplace accidents last year, including nearly 3,800 coal miners, representing an improvement on the more than 4,700 people killed in mine mishaps in 2006, according to official data.

But even Mr Li admitted that the figures, especially the mining death toll, failed to present a real picture of the appalling safety situations in the coal mines, with rampant cover-ups and under-reporting of accidents at the grass-roots level.

At the devastating scene of an explosion at a government-licensed coal mine in Shanxi's Hongtong county that killed at least 105 miners in December, he slammed his fist on a desk yet again - his trademark gesture.

'If the operation of the coal mine is fully licensed, it is licensed by devils from hell,' he said.

Apart from shoddy safety equipment, local authorities' lax controls and mine owners' disrespect for workers' lives, he blamed belated and lenient punishment - which usually came months after accidents - for the abysmal work safety record.

Officials have closed thousands of small and illegal coal mines, which produced a third of the country's coal but accounted for two-thirds of coal-mine deaths, and has imposed much higher fines and tougher penalties in an attempt to improve safety.

But the mainland still has 10 to 15 years to go before it can cut work accidents to the same acceptable levels as industrialised nations, according to Mr Li.

He had been tipped to make a difference when he was moved from the high-profile vice-chairmanship of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission three years ago.

But his harsh words, which fell short of questioning the system - under which only grass-roots cadres were subject to criminal penalties while higher-level local officials received just administrative warnings for the spate of deadly work disasters - have failed to impress many mainlanders, with some demanding his resignation to take the blame.

A graduate from the Beijing Petroleum Institute in 1966, Mr Li has spent most of his career working for state-run oil and petrochemical firms.

He became president of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp in 1998 and its chairman in 2000. In 2003, he was appointed vice-chairman of Sasac and the powerful agency's party chief, in essence making him its top official.

Mr Li's new appointment to one of the five mega-ministries set up as part of an ambitious government restructuring plan may prove to be no less challenging, analysts said.

The Ministry of Industry and Information integrates functions previously held by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Commission of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Council Information Office. It will have to tackle much- anticipated telecommunications restructuring and help manufacturing businesses meet international challenges.