BEIJING, Feb. 27(Xinhuanet)-- One of the best sellers in China in 2004 was a fake.

No Excuse, published by the Machine-building Industry Press, has a phoney book review from The New York Times and false information about the author on its cover.

In response to the book's rising sales, the State Press and Publication Administration issued a notice calling for an investigation of"fake books" Thursday.

China will make every effort to crack down on"fake books" and hold writers and publishers accountable, said Wu Shulin, deputy director of the administration.

The fraudulent books, unlike pirated versions of legitimate books, are usually published by legal publishing houses and distributed through legal channels.

According to Wu Shangzhi, an official from the book division ofthe administration, there are three kinds of"fake books" in the market: books with made up foreign writers and reviews; books with plagiarized titles and credits of well-known foreign books but different contents and counterfeit works of famous Chinese writers.

"Fake books" violate the publication regulations and the rightsof book consumers, Wu said.

In another development, the Publishers Association of China released a proposal Thursday calling on publishers to build up their credibility by rejecting phoney merchandise.