A senior official of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has urged the China Law Society (CLS) and local law societies to provide powerful theoretical support to the great cause of socialism with China's own characteristics.

These societies should adhere to the correct political orientation, center on the country's realities, and obey and serve the general requirements of the Party's and State's work, said Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and the secretary of the CPC Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

Zhou said these in a letter to an enlarged meeting of the executive directors of the CLS in Beijing on Thursday.

The 17th Party Congress, which was held last October, calls for rule of law in governing the country and accelerating the building of a socialist country under the rule of law, the senior Party official said.

He urged the CLS and local law societies to study and implement the instructions CPC General Secretary Hu Jintao made at the recent national working conference on political and legal affairs.

Hu's instructions, which have further clarified a series of major theoretical and practical issues in the political and legal work and the general requirements for the political and legal work, is of great importance, according to the official.

Zhou said that the CLS and local law societies as well as researchers and practitioners of law should make it the primary political task to study and implement the essence of the 17th Party Congress and Hu's instructions, he said.

Han Shubin, chairman of the CSL addressed the meeting, which heard a work report delivered by Liu Yang, the Party chief and vice chairman of the society.