BEIJING, Feb 16 (AP) -- China's Communist Party disciplined more than 150,000 corrupt party members in 2004 and uncovered more than US$300 million (€230 million) in misused public funds, the government said Wednesday.

Fifteen of the 164,831 party members disciplined in 2004 were at the ministerial level, a party watchdog said in a report cited by the official Xinhua News Agency.

"We punish every rotten cadre we can find," Wu Guanzheng, secretary of the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection was quoted as saying.

The report, which was issued Tuesday, did not say what sort of disciplinary action the cadres faced. Only 4,775 "serious offenders" were transferred to judiciary departments, it said.

Despite continual campaigns and the arrests of thousands of officials, bribery, embezzlement, fraud and other forms of corruption are widespread throughout China, especially in bidding for construction projects. Scams often piggyback on the nation's surging economic growth.

The report said the party had particularly cracked down on corruption affecting the disadvantaged "such as farmers in land acquisition deals, urban residents in relocation projects, employees of state-owned firms in corporate regrouping and bankruptcy deals and migrant workers with delayed wages."

It did not specify what new measures had been taken.

Xinhua said the watchdog detected 2.5 billion yuan (US$303 million; €233 million) in public funds misused by party officials last year. Another 1.46 billion yuan (US$176 million; €136 million) was spent on the prohibited purchase of commercial insurance for staffers, Xinhua said.