BEIJING, Feb. 2 -- China's ruling party has called for innovation in discipline inspection as part of efforts to combat corruption and build a clean government.

Local discipline watchdogs have been asked to report possible corruption cases to both local Communist Party of China (CPC) committees and discipline inspection agencies of their immediate superior level, said a research center under the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC.

Each local discipline inspection agency is under the dual leadership of the CPC committee at the same level and the inspection agency of a superior level.

However, local discipline agencies used to report clues of possible corruption to their local CPC committees only. Such cases could be investigated after leading officials of the local CPC committees agreed.

"Reporting clues to superior discipline organs can help restrict the power of the local CPC committee and crack down on corruption," the CCDI research center said.

Wang Qishan, secretary of the CCDI, said recently that the Party would streamline its discipline inspection system by granting more power to discipline inspection agencies.

Barriers and flaws in the system have resulted in anti-graft organs' ineffective operation, which has affected anti-graft work, the CCDI research center said.

In addition, the nomination and evaluation of heads of discipline inspection agencies will be conducted by superior discipline organs and organization departments, it said.

Inspection teams should focus more on leading officials, including members of the CPC Central Committee who concurrently hold posts as provincial-level Party chiefs, it said.

Last year, 10 teams of discipline inspectors visited 20 provincial governments, big state-owned enterprises and public institutions, collecting important clues that helped bring down a number of corrupt officials.