BEIJING, Apr 24 (AP) -- Chinese lawmakers began deliberating a draft law Tuesday to ban "vanity projects" -- clamping down on officials who build unnecessarily opulent real estate while ignoring the needs of the rural poor, state media reported.

Xinhua News Agency said the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, started its four-day session which would include looking at ways to ban such buildings.

As China's economy has boomed in recent years, many local officials have put up extravagant government buildings with marble walls and huge windows that far exceed needs. Some of the excess spending has also gone on kickbacks to the officials, and the Communist Party has warned that such corruption could weaken its grip on power.

"With development of the economy, new problems have emerged in the country's urban and rural planning," Construction Minister Wang Guangtao was quoted as saying.

"Some local governments have blindly pursued urban development and have built too many 'vanity projects'," Wang said. "Misuse of land resources is serious in rural areas as rural planning is quite inadequate and fails to meet the needs of farmers."

Earlier this month, the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, and the State Council, or Cabinet, sent out a circular banning the building of luxurious government buildings with indoor fountains, soaring atriums and dance stages in a bid to curb waste and corruption.

The circular government officials had "to be frugal in spending public money" and that government office buildings should be "stately" without "luxurious" interiors or exteriors.