BEIJING - China has sacked two local government chiefs and their deputies after a series of coal mine accidents in the northern province of Shanxi in the past month that killed 55 people, Xinhua news agency said on Friday.

Related readings:  Shanxi to use aerial camera to fight illegal mining  Mining giant to invest in Shaanxi  Rolling to the rescue  Colliery flood traps 8 in northeast China, five survive  25 dead in coal mine blaze; owners flee  Coal mine accidents claim 104 lives in 8 days  35 killed in north China colliery gas blast  Coal mine blast kills 24 workers, 10 missing  Fatal coal mine accident reported in Shanxi, casualties unknown Death toll climbs in mine disasters

China has the world's deadliest coal mining industry with fatal accidents almost daily as safety regulations are ignored and production is pushed beyond safe limits in the rush to profit from the energy-famished boom economy.

Gong Qi, chief of Lingshi county, and his deputy Feng Kaicheng were fired from their posts in the Communist Party and would also lose their government jobs, Xinhua said.

Their dismissals were prompted by a November 12 tragedy when 34 miners suffocated to death after illegally stored explosives caught fire and spewed forth toxic gas at an unlicensed mine.

Lingshi had just suffered a major coal mine disaster in July when a gas blast killed more than 50 miners.

Wang Qinghe, acting chief of the Bolin district in Shanxi's provincial capital, Taiyuan, and his deputy Ning Keqiang were sacked over two separate accidents in the past month that killed 21 at two illegal coal mines, Xinhua said.

Shanxi, which produces a quarter of China's coal, announced it would inspect all small coal mines in the next 20 days and close those falling short of safety standards, it added.

But many Chinese local officials have secretly flouted orders to close mines, fearing loss of tax revenue and, in some cases, illicit income from their own stakes in mines.

Despite a 22 percent decline in fatalities from a year earlier, a total of 3,726 miners died in over 2,300 floods, blasts and other accidents in Chinese coal mines in the first 10 months of 2006.