PEOPLE'S Liberation Army leaders have urged soldiers to live frugally and resist the temptations of money and pleasure. At their meeting with NPC delegates, vice-chairmen of the Central Military Commission generals Zhang Zhen and Liu Huaqing stressed that every soldier must hold a 'correct' attitude towards the economic benefits which sprung up in the course of building a socialist market economy. The Army must also put national above personal interests, the generals said. 'Arduous struggle is our Army's true political colour,' General Zhang said. 'If we give this up, unhealthy things like money worship, pleasure seeking and individualism will spread through the Army,' the official People's Daily quoted him as saying. As the country's economy has been reformed, the three-million-strong Army has gained significant commercial strength by diversifying into civilian industries. The NPC is expected to approve 63.1 billion yuan (HK$57.86 billion) in military spending this year, a 21.25 per cent increase on 1994's budgeted figure and a 14.6 per cent rise of actual defence expenditure. The increase, the biggest since 1979 when then vice-premier Deng Xiaoping streamlined the sprawling and badly-equipped military, will be aimed at shoring up Army support for President Jiang Zemin, Army sources said.