China's lawmakers on Sunday affirmed the revision of the controversial property draft bill and suggested delivering the draft to the full session of the National People's Congress after further review.

The latest draft makes "the protection of state, collective, and private property" the main principle of its legislation. It also protects individual rights to bank accounts, earned profits and residential property.

The new draft contains stricter clauses on preventing farmland from being converted into construction sites and requires that land for factories, business, tourism, recreation, and residential housing be put out to public tender.

Among other major revisions, the latest version scraps a clause that would have allowed farmers with stable incomes to mortgage the rights to use their farmland.

The bill was first submitted to the legislature in 2002 and has already been through a rare sixth reading.