The sentence for former Suzhou vice mayor Jiang Renjie comes just five days after a former Beijing vice mayor in charge of overseeing Olympic construction projects got a suspended death sentence for accepting about US$1 million (S$1.5 million) in bribes from developers.

Jiang was in charge of construction, transportation and other lucrative sectors in Suzhou, where almost 100 Fortune 500 companies have a presence. The city is just outside Shanghai, China's business capital and largest city.

An official with the Intermediate People's Court in Nanjing confirmed Jiang's sentence but gave no details.

A report by the official Xinhua News Agency said he took more than US$14 million in bribes between 2001 and 2004.

Jiang has appealed the death sentence, the report said.

Corruption is widespread among officials in China and is a popular target of disgust among Chinese.

On Oct 18, a former Beijing vice mayor in charge of overseeing Olympic construction projects, Liu Zhihua, was given a suspended death sentence for corruption.

He was accused of taking bribes totalling about US$1 million and gifts in return for favours to property development companies.

Officials said the bribe-taking had nothing to do with Olympic projects.

In August, a former land use official in Shanghai, Yin Guoguan, was sentenced to death for taking bribes and other crimes. The sentence also was suspended for two years, which usually means life imprisonment in such cases.

Earlier this year Shanghai's former Communist Party chief, Chen Liangyu, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his role in a pension fund scandal. -- AP