In the intermediate transfer belt of the present invention, a toner image
formed on a plurality of photoreceptors is transferred and temporarily
retained. The intermediate transfer belt comprises a reinforcing layer to
reinforce the intermediate transfer belt and a surface protection layer
that is stacked on the reinforcing layer through a middle layer and
contacts the photoreceptors. The reinforcing layer and the surface
protection layer have a larger value of surface resistance than a value
of volume resistance of the whole belt. This makes it possible to prevent
electric charge (voltage) from flowing out to rollers and image forming
units and put proper electric charge (voltage) on the intermediate
transfer belt. Preferably, the values of surface resistance of the
reinforcing layer and the surface protection layer are 1.times.10.sup.10
to 1.times.10.sup.14 .OMEGA./.quadrature. and the value of volume
resistance of the whole intermediate transfer belt is less than
1.times.10.sup.10 .OMEGA.cm.