BEIJING - Chinese police have pledged to reduce lavish banquets, overseas visits, meetings and talks as part of a new austerity drive to fight formalism and bureaucratism.

Senior police officials should increase in-depth inspections and research at the grassroots level in order to listen to the public and determine the real situation, according to a regulation issued by the Ministry of Public Security on Tuesday.

The regulation specifies that there should be less news reporting on senior police officials' attendance at public events, and such reports should depend on work needs, news value and social effects.

The ministry introduced the regulation in light of the new central leadership's call to improve work styles.

At a meeting attended by members of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee on December 4, leaders urged authorities to improve their work style and forge closer ties with the masses in a bid to win public trust and support.