In particular, the communique singled out the need to target rural officials whose illicit deals helped spark deadly riots from Huanxi in Zhejiang province to Shanwei in Guangdong province.

It said the party leadership would draw up measures to combat corruption in rural areas, including more inspectors being sent to monitor the conduct of rural officials and taking steps to force them to open their account books and other affairs for villagers to monitor.

In the keynote speech at the meeting, President Hu set the tone by warning that 'the fight against corruption is a long-term, complicated and arduous task'. He urged officials to establish more safeguards against corruption and monitor the conduct of officials in 'all round ways', particularly top-ranking officials.

There is little doubt the communique and Mr Hu's speech made the right noises by identifying those areas of most rampant corruption and promising tougher crackdowns.

However, success is far from assured as long as the party leadership continues to attribute rampant official corruption to the lack of regulatory safeguards, rather than recognising the need to push for the rule of law, a bigger role for the media, more transparency and the adoption of international practices to combat corruption.

Both Mr Hu and the communique highlighted the paramount need to use the party's constitution as the basis to draft more regulations to combat power abuses and corruption as well as regulating the behaviour of party officials.

But using the party's internal codes to combat corruption has proved less effective in the past and there is no evidence to suggest it is going to work in the future. Moreover, enforcing the party's codes will diminish the importance of upholding the rule of law.

In fact, some of the party's codes may not be fully in compliance with the law. One example is the widespread use of the so-called shuanggui - a Communist Party rule that requires suspects to report to graft investigators at specific times and places.

It has become the most potent weapon in nailing corrupt party members as anti-graft investigators can use the rule to hold suspects as long as they like, but this is a clear violation of the constitution and relevant laws. Abuses are rampant as some local authorities have used it to detain private businessmen and even Hong Kong businessmen because of commercial disputes, although those people were not party members.

In fact, apart from shuanggui, the party has drafted comprehensive rules to curb corruption, with such detailed requirements as the types and makes of cars to be used by officials at different rankings, but they have had little effect.

There are several measures that should be taken. Firstly, the party leadership must introduce more transparency in the policy-making process by streamlining government bureaucracy and reducing regulatory powers.

Secondly, the party leadership should allow the media to play a bigger role in monitoring and exposing official corruption as one-party rule means it is impossible for the party to monitor itself effectively. But unfortunately, the opposite is happening as the party leadership is tightening controls over those media and journalists who are aggressive in exposing official corruption.

And thirdly, the mainland should take steps to learn from international practices and seek international help in combating corruption.

Last year, the National People's Congress ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption, a step forward and an effective tool to enable Beijing to seek extradition of corrupt officials who have fled the country with billions of US dollars.