BEIJING -- The People's Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party of China, on Thursday called for enhancing the legal system in order to help reform the country's economic system.

Strengthening the construction of the legal system should be a primary task in promoting reforms for the current economic system, according to a bylined article published by the newspaper.

The article described the task as a serious problem related to development and reform as a whole.

In order to push forward the new round of reforms, national affairs should be covered by the legal system, while social affairs should also be institutionalized, according to the article.

Leading officials's ability to carry out their work under the rule of law should be improved, the article said, adding that more efforts are needed to provide the masses with legal knowledge so as to help strengthen the construction of the legal system.

Great importance should be attached to accelerating the transformation of China's economic growth mode, with significant improvement in the quality and performance of economic growth, the article noted.

According to the article, China's economic system has undergone four rounds of reforms based on changes in social conditions since the introduction of the reform and opening-up policy in the late 1970s.

The previous four rounds of reforms focused on rural reform in 1978, invigorating enterprises in 1984, building a basic framework for a socialist market economy in 1993 and perfecting the socialist market economy mechanism in 2003.