BEIJING - A COURT in southwestern China's quake zone sentenced three village officials to jail terms of seven years each for taking bribes to distribute earthquake relief funds, state media said on Tuesday.

The officials had organised a lottery for victims of last year's devastating Sichuan earthquake in which the winners would get government funds intended to help quake-hit families get back on their feet, the Beijing News said.

The officials in Jinya village near the city of Mianyang then accepted bribes from households to influence the results, it said.

The three sentenced were the village's Communist Party secretary Zuo Duyuan, the director of its governing committee An Xinwu, and village comptroller Yi Deyin, the report said.

Corruption is rampant in China and the government has admitted that some relief funds and supplies have been misused, but has downplayed the scale of the problem.

Parents who lost children in the May 12, 2008 quake say corrupt practices left school buildings shoddily constructed, causing their collapse when the 8.0 magnitude quake struck.

The earthquake left nearly 87,000 people dead or missing, including 5,335 schoolchildren, the government said this month. -- AFP