CHANGSHA, March 21 (Xinhua) -- Court hearings into a former head of a city's economic planning department over bribery and embezzlement charges started in central China's Hunan Province on Friday.

    Pan Xiangling, 49, former director of the Development and Reform Commission of Xiangtan City in Hunan, was accused of asking for and accepting bribes worth of more than 381,000 U.S. dollars, and misappropriating nearly 219,000 U.S. dollars in public funds mainly for gambling from 2002 to 2007.

    Pan was alleged to have made many overseas trips to gamble. It was alleged he had collected money for gambling taking advantage of his position, said the prosecutors at the Xiangtan Intermediate People's Court.

    Local police forces detained Pan, also former Party chief of the commission, last year after receiving public reports about his alleged corruption.

    Pan denied all the charges in court. Before the trial he had claimed that he was guilty. "Gambling is the source of all evils. It ruins my family," Pan had said in a statement of repentance after he was detained.

    Cases of government officials who gamble with public funds have given rise to public complaints. The government has conducted a nationwide crackdown over the past three years to punish civil servants who squander public money in gambling trips abroad.

    It is still unknown when the court will announce the verdict.