BEIJING - DOZENS of Chinese officials from the southern province of Guangdong have gambled away more than 20 million yuan (S$4.3 million) of public funds in Hong Kong and Macau since 2003, state media reported on Saturday.

A total of 53 officials were brought to justice and some of them were jailed, said Mr Zhao Zhenhua, deputy secretary of province's Communist Party's disciplinary committee, according to the China Daily.

Mr Chen Zhiqiang, a party official from Foshan city, was sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday for gambling away 13 million yuan in public money between 2005 and 2006, the Southern Metropolis News reported.

An inveterate gambler, Mr Chen visited Macau four times a week to try his luck in the casinos, the newspaper said.

Another official, Mr Wu Xingkui, the former party number two in the town of Yunfu, was handed a four-year jail term for gambling away more than two million yuan over a period of 18 months.

Ironically, Wu had carried out several operations against gambling, pornography and drugs.

President Hu Jintao has made the battle against corruption one of his priorities, a move which is popular with a population exasperated by growing social inequalities. -- AFP