President Hu Jintao called on Communist Party leaders Friday to stamp out corruption and do a better job of managing China's ruling party as they marked the 85th anniversary of its founding.

President Hu Jintao speaks to military officers in Beijing June 27, 2006. [Xinhua]

"Anti-corruption and building a clean government are an important strategic mission. We cannot slack off for one moment," Hu said in a nationally televised speech to hundreds of leading party figures at the Beijing compound where Chinese leaders live and work.

Hu called on the Party members to "enhance our abilities to govern the party."

China has punished thousands of officials in a multiyear campaign to clean up graft and abuses.

Former deputy commander of the navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), Wang Shouye, was expelled on Thursday from China's top legislature on charges of economic crimes, after his mistress turned him in.

According to documents submitted to the NPC, an unmarried young woman admitted to authorities that she had been keeping an "improper relationship" with Wang "for a long time."

Two other members of parliament were also stripped of their posts for economic offenses.

Also on Thursday, a court opened in east China's Anhui province to hear the case of former deputy head of provincial finance department Kuang Bingwen and his son Kuang Zhongpin, who were charged with taking bribes of 861,000 yuan and 51,000 U.S. dollars and embezzling public funds.

Last year, Chinese authorities investigated 8,490 government officials, including eight ministerial-level leaders, for corruption, the Xinhua News Agency reported Thursday. It said nearly 2,000 were convicted in court.