A national campaign intended to improve the public perception of the police has seen "more than 1.9 million police members, including State Councilor and Minister of Public Security Meng Jianzhu," make door-to-door visits, the People's Daily, run by the Communist Party of China, reported Thursday in a front-page story.

The visits involved addressing such problems as winter heating shortages in disaster-hit areas.

The national campaign, initiated by the Ministry of Public Security at the end of last year, had helped improve the public image of the police and resolved many public problems, the paper said. The campaign will run through March.

The ministry told the newspaper that the campaign was part of an effort to "maintain social stability and improve relations between the police and the masses".

A ministry spokesman said: "Police going among the public can settle conflicts and resolve problems more directly than petitioners appealing to the government for help."

Police in the eastern province of Jiangsu mainly visited local juvenile offenders, children of prisoners and migrant workers and orphans, the newspaper said. Police in next-door Zhejiang Province visited local enterprises that have experienced financial problems and places where public security "was in disorder," it reported.

Earthquake-hit regions in southwestern Sichuan and northwestern Gansu provinces had asked the police to visit families having difficulties in their daily lives.

Source: Xinhua