In this file photo, criminals are sentenced to death during an open trial in China's Hunan province in 2006. China will not abolish the death penalty but will be using the sentence more sparingly, the country's top court has ruled. (China Daily/Reuters)

The highest court in China, which executes more people than any other country, has called for the death penalty to be used less often and for only the most serious criminal cases, state media reported Wednesday.

The remarks indicate the Supreme People's Court, which reviews all death sentences from lower courts before they are carried out, could overturn more of them.

Rights group Amnesty International reported earlier this year that China put at least 1,718 people to death in 2008. The penalty is used even for nonviolent crimes such as corruption or tax evasion.

The exact number of executions actually conducted in China is a state secret.

A report released Wednesday by Italian human rights group Hands Off Cain indicates China accounted for about 87 per cent of the death penalty sentences handed down worldwide in 2008.

The Rome-based group bases its figures on reports by the media and information from other human rights groups.

According to the annual report, at least 5,727 executions were carried out in 46 countries in 2008, down from 5,851 the year before.

Legislation to be revised

China's high court will revise legislation to cut down the number of death sentences and will stress commuting sentences to life in prison for some criminals who show good behaviour, a senior director in charge at the court told the Legal Daily newspaper.

"A policy of strictly controlling and being cautious to use the death penalty … requires judicial departments to use as few death penalties as possible, meaning you don't kill those who you don't have to kill," the official was quoted as saying in an interview, a partial transcript of which was published on the Legal Daily website.

The paper did not give his name, but the English-language China Daily newspaper — which reported on the Legal Daily interview — said Wednesday it was Zhang Jun, vice-president of the Supreme People's Court.

He was quoted as saying the Supreme People's Court tries to ensure the death penalty is given to those who commit serious crimes that have social consequences, but that it is not feasible for China to abolish the death penalty altogether.

For example, for crimes stemming from disputes between family members or neighbours, a death penalty should not be given if the charged gives compensation or is forgiven by the family of those he injured.

The China Daily said the Supreme People's Court overturned 15 per cent of death sentences handed down in 2007 and 10 per cent in 2008.