Some of the slave laborers freed by police from a brick kiln in Shanxi's Hongtong county. [Li Tingzhen/China Daily]

China will launch a nationwide inspection of labour conditions after a slave labour scandal, the government announced on Wednesday in the highest acknowledgement yet of gruesome exploitation in rural brick kilns.

Premier Wen Jiabao chaired a meeting of the country's State Council Standing Committee, or cabinet, which heard an initial investigation into slave-like coercion of workers and even children in kilns throughout Shanxi, state television reported.

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The meeting was the highest official recognition yet of the gravity of the slave labour scandal that has unfolded over past weeks, drawing outrage from local media and citizens.

Hundreds of poor farmers, teenagers and some children were abducted or lured into kilns, mines and foundries in Shanxi and Henan provinces. The government meeting spelt out a litany of abuses and promised action to protect workers' rights.

"In the Shanxi black kilns there were not only grave illegal employment problems, but also criminal forces abducting, restricting personal freedom, using coerced labour, employing children and maliciously wounding to the point of death," said a summary of the meeting read out on the television news.

"This incident must be thoroughly investigated and seriously handled."

Local officials have been accused of ignoring or even helping the trade in trapped workers, and the meeting vowed to "strictly investigate and punish involved officials for any corruption and dereliction of duty."

It vowed a sweeping nationwide inspection to stamp out workplace abuses, with a focus on child labour and coercion in small rural workplaces.