China has created a special court to prosecute product piracy cases, a government spokesman said Friday, amid demands for Beijing to step up action against rampant illegal copying of movies, music, software and other goods.

China's supreme court has named a Judicial Court of Intellectual Property to handle such cases nationwide, court spokesman Sun Huapu said at a news conference held during the annual meeting of parliament.

China is regarded as the leading producer of pirated goods, and the United States and other trading partners say the problem is getting worse despite repeated promises to crack down.

Chinese courts handed down prison sentences in criminal cases of intellectual property rights violations involving 741 people last year, Sun said. He didn't say how many of those people were jailed or give the length of sentences.

The number of civil cases brought against product pirates rose nearly 21 percent to 16,583, Sun said.

Sun said the court also has launched a Web site to publicize product piracy cases _ possibly signaling a strategy to use the threat of public shaming to deter pirates.

"We shall reform and perfect the legal system and work mechanism relating to intellectual property," he said, without giving details of other planned changes.

U.S. officials say Chinese copying of goods ranging from software and golf clubs to Hollywood movies and heart medications costs legitimate products worldwide up to US$50 billion (euro40 billion) a year in lost potential sales.

Such goods are readily available in shops throughout the country despite repeated crackdowns.

An American trade envoy who visited Beijing this month complained that the problem is getting a worse and called for a "substantial reform" of China's enforcement system.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the changes announced by Sun would satisfy Washington's demands.