Beijing, October 23:

The former vice mayor of a city in eastern China has been sentenced to death for taking more than 100 million yuan ($14.6 million) in bribes from property developers, state media said today.

Jiang Renjie, the former vice mayor of Suzhou city, west of Shanghai, was sentenced to death for taking 108 million yuan in bribes from five property companies between 2001 and 2004, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Jiang, 60, was also convicted by a court in neighbouring Nanjing for misappropriating public funds, it said, without giving the date of his trial.

The former vice mayor, who was placed under investigation in 2004, has appealed the sentence, it added.