Mexico City - Mexico's Senate passed Wednesday an anti-corruption bill requiring public servants to make their assets, tax returns and economic interests public, taking up a proposal signed by more than 600,000 citizens, while giving a new independent anti-corruption body the power to protect information it considers may affect the private lives of public servants.

The bill is part of legislation for implementing constitutional changes made in April of last year to tackle corruption in government. The lower house is expected to vote on the legislation this week.

The bill was a compromise between President Enrique Peña Nieto's government and the ruling party, which wanted to keep some information private for security reasons, and civil society organizations and some opposition lawmakers who favored full disclosure of assets.

Currently, public servants aren't forced to make their statements public.

In a session that ran into the early hours Wednesday, the Senate voted 85-to-22 in favor of the bill with the support of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, its allies of the Green Party and some opposition senators.

Along with that bill, which is popularly known here as the "Ley 3 de 3" (3-out-of-3 law), the Senate passed four other bills to create a new legal framework to fight corruption. It includes a special anti corruption attorney independent from the government, a strengthened federal audit office, and special courts to hear corruption cases.

The legislation also toughened punishments for elected public servants convicted of receiving bribes and other types of corrupt practices. Those officials would now face up to 18 years in prison.