A senior central bank official said recently that China's membership of the world money policing agency, the Financial Action Task Force on Anti-Money Laundering (FATF), would benefit the FATF as well as China.

China is an important member of the international community and attaches great importance to combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, said Xiang Junbo, vice governor of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), at a symposium held in Shanghai.

China is keen to enter the FATF, the most influential international anti-money laundering organization. Voting will take place next June.

The government has ratified a series of international treaties on the issue and the new anti-money laundering law will come into effect on January 1, 2007.

The PBOC launched an anti-money laundering campaign in 2003, establishing an anti-money laundering bureau as well as a monitoring and analysis center.

China can progress further in anti-money laundering by joining the organization and the FATF needs to recruit more members, said Xiang.

China will make an oral defense of its candidature at the FATF conference in next June, before the organization votes on China's entry.

The international mechanism will be incomplete and will not fully represent developing nations if China is not included, said Xiang.

The authority and stability of the organization will be sounder if China is a member, he said.

The 33-member FATF was established at the G-7 Summit in Paris in 1989, in response to mounting concern over money laundering. China became an observer in 2005.