BEIJING - The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is soliciting ideas from the public on the design of a unified logo that will be used to brand all official websites of Party and governmental bodies.

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"The unified logo will help the public recognize websites that belong to Party and government bodies, to detect and crack down on fake sites and to guarantee the solemnity and authority of authentic ones," the ministry said in an announcement on its website.

The logo will be used by nationwide Party and government bodies, the people's congresses, the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the courts and procuratorates at all levels.

The logo will be given prominence on all pages on those websites, it said, while other sites will not be allowed to use it.

Ideas collected from the public should be simple, specific and easy to distinguish and remember, the announcement said. Designers should also describe in words what they are trying to achieve.

People can send their work to logo@ccidgroup.com.

Submissions should be sent in by March 31. Then, 24 ideas will be analyzed by experts and exhibited at key portal websites to draw public suggestions.

Four logos will be picked for the shortlist and the best one will be selected after consultation with relevant departments.

The logo will be announced by the end of April and the designer will be awarded 10,000 yuan ($1,520). A colored version of the logo will be used in most cases but a gray edition will also be needed.

Xiao Zhe, a Beijing resident, welcomed the move, noting that there are many fake websites.

"The addresses of those fake sites are very much like the authentic ones," he said.

"A unified logo will not only be useful for us to tell government websites from non-government ones but will also be convenient to tell authentic ones from fake ones."

But Zhang Xiulan, a professor with the school of social development and public policy at Beijing Normal University, said the program is a waste of social resources. She said government officials should have an internal discussion about the logo and design it and then inform the public about it.

"It's unnecessary to mobilize public efforts," she said.