A former Chinese national legislator has been executed for the multiple rape of schoolgirls and organising a criminal gang, state media reported Friday.

Wu Tianxi (63) was put to death Thursday in Nanyang, central Henan province, after the Supreme People's Court upheld his sentence, Xinhua news agency said.

Wu was sentenced to death in December 2007 for ordering gangsters under his leadership to forcibly bring 24 schoolgirls to his office and hotel rooms to be raped. Six of the girls were aged between 12 and 14, it said.

Since 1992, Wu had led a gang which also engaged in illegal transfers and trades of land-use rights, carried out blackmail and illegally drew on public funds.

China annually executes more people than the rest of the world combined, with the nation last year putting to death more than 1700 people out of a global total of almost 2400, according to Amnesty International.

As China does not publish full data on the death penalty, rights groups say the numbers executed could be far higher.