The official Wenhui Daily said the trial had been the country's first case of theft by remote means.

An intermediate court judge in the eastern city of Yangzhou said that the sentence reflected the "tough stance" that the country had to take against an expected wave of high-tech crime.

Hao Jingrong, an employee at an Industrial and Commercial Bank of China branch in Zhenjiang, secretly connected a home-made modem to the bank's computer in September.

His twin brother, Hao Jingwen, then used a personal computer set up in a specially rented apartment in Yangzhou to dial into the bank system and transfer the funds.

The funds were then deposited in 16 accounts that the brothers had opened under false names.

The report did not clarify how the authorities traced them but by the time they were caught they had withdrawn a total of 260,000 yuan.

The sentence also includes a fine of 40,000 yuan.

In November China announced it was stepping up measures to deal with computer hackers after a spate of incidents, including the hacking of a government human rights Website.

Dissidents jailed

In a separate case, two US-based dissidents have been sentenced to three years forced labour after they secretly re-entered the country, the Foreign Ministry said.

The announcement of the sentence, the maximum allowed without trial, was the first news on the whereabouts of Zhang Lin and Wei Quanbao since they returned home almost two months ago.

Families and supporters of the men in the US accused Chinese authorities of being evasive when they had requested information on the pair's whereabouts.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said police arrested Zhang and Wei in the southern provincial capital of Guangzhou in a barber shop operating as a front for prostitution.

The two men had allegedly confessed to hiring prostitutes and using a truck to secretly re-enter the country from Hong Kong on November 11.

Zhang, 35, has already spent two periods in prison and labour camps for democracy campaigning. After his release last year he left for the US where he reportedly received a residence permit.

The foreign ministry statement said the men are members of the China Democratic Justice Party, "a hostile foreign organisation".