China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation said it had discovered in 2004 that the employee at one of its subsidiaries, surnamed Du, had taken kickbacks from Daimler, according to a statement on the Chinese firm's website.

"We urge and hope the government will effectively exert its jurisdiction and severely punish those multinationals and merchants audaciously challenging Chinese laws," Sinopec said.

The bribes are part of a wider case in which Daimler admitted to hundreds of improper payments worth tens of millions of dollars to foreign government officials in at least 22 countries including China between 1998 and 2008.

The German carmaker escaped criminal charges in a longstanding US probe into its habitual bribing of foreign officials, according to a deferred prosecution agreement filed in a Washington court this week.

Prosecutors recommended that a judge impose a 93.6-million-dollar fine and accept the guilty plea of two Daimler subsidiaries. They noted that Daimler had mended its ways and cooperated fully with investigators.

Daimler will pay a separate 91.4-million-dollar fine to settle an investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

In the Sinopec case, its subsidiary immediately cut off its business ties with Daimler to rectify the problem, and Du was jailed in 2006 for taking bribes, the statement said.

Tan Dashui, a spokesman for the subsidiary, told AFP that Du had received bribes worth around 2.02 million euros (2.7 million dollars) from Daimler.

"No other company employee was involved in the case," Tan said.

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