BEIJING - China has prosecuted 192 officials for vote-buying and electoral fraud in the current round of village elections across the country, state media reported on Thursday.

The appointments of 613 officials were annulled in elections for local party committees, heads of local people's congresses, local governments and advisory bodies that began last year and will finish in 2007, the Shanghai Daily said.

The newspaper cited a circular from the Organisation Department of the Communist Party Central Committee urging party committees "to severely punish transgressors and foster a harmonious, stable and clean election environment".

"Harmonious society" is a catchphrase of Chinese President Chinese President Hu Jintao, who last month added his voice to a high-profile drive to root out official corruption, calling for a culture of clean and honest government.

Party investigators cited the case of Tian Zhongli, deputy Party secretary of Changchun, capital of China's northeastern province of Jilin, who took bribes of more than US$130,000 from eight officials during elections in June and July last year, the newspaper said.

Li Shiyang, a government worker in Yingde, in south China's Guangdong province, gave 100,000 yuan ($12,890), imported wine and cigarettes to six local officials to campaign for his election to the Yingde Party committee in their home villages, the newspaper said.

The buying and selling of party and government posts is rampant in China's countryside.

Last July, state media reported that eight officials were punished for buying and selling government jobs, with one official taking bribes of more than 1 million yuan over five years to help get government workers promotions or transfers.