SHANGHAI - Four former top executives at China Southern Airlines, one of the country's biggest carriers, are on trial in the southern city of Guangzhou, state media reports said Wednesday.

Staff who answered the phone at the Guangzhou No. 1 Intermediate Court said they could not comment on the reports that the trial began Monday, more than a year after the businessmen were arrested on bribery and embezzlement charges.

The charges involve more than 1.2 billion yuan (US$151 million; euro121 million), the official Xinhua News Agency cited prosecutors as saying.

The executives include China Southern's former chief financial officer, Chen Liming, former general manager Yan Zhiqing, former deputy general manager Peng Anfa and Han Xiaojun, branch director in Guangzhou for Hantang Securities, the state-run newspaper Shanghai Daily reported.

China Southern is China's biggest airline by fleet size and has shares traded in New York, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Prosecutors accuse Chen of taking bribes, stealing company funds and embezzling 1.2 billion yuan from 2001-last year through abuse of a collective asset management business with Hantang, the report said.