BEIJING : Three of China's most powerful politicians, including Vice President Zeng Qinghong, have stood down, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

Zeng, 68, Wu Guanzheng, 69, and Luo Gan, 72, were not named on the Communist Party's Central Committee of roughly 200 people, Xinhua said.

That means they will not keep their posts on the party's elite nine-member Standing Committee, which rules the country.

The committee list was approved on the final day of the ruling Communist Party's five-yearly Congress.

Another position in the Standing Committee is already vacant due to the death of vice premier Huang Ju this year.

This means that as many as four new faces may be named alongside President Hu Jintao in the party's top body, if it continues to comprise nine people.

Xinhua said Hu and the other four members of the Standing Committee, including Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, had been named to the Central Committee, indicating they will stand for re-election to the top organ.

The new line-up of the top organ is expected to be announced on Monday following the new Central Committee's first meeting.

Zeng, a party "princeling" whose father was a first generation revolutionary, is closely tied with former president Jiang Zemin and his faction based out of China's eastern metropolis of Shanghai.

After Jiang retired as head of the Communist Party in 2002, Zeng was rewarded with a place on the Standing Committee and in 2003 was given the vice presidency.

Wu Guanzheng, also seen as a political ally of Jiang, was head of the party's disciplinary committee.

Since then, Wu appeared to have worked closely with Hu to crack down on corruption in the party, helping to remove at least 16 graft tainted ministerial-level officials.

Luo Gan oversaw the nation's security affairs as head of the party's Politics and Law Committee.

He was in charge of the nation's judicial, prosecution, police and state security organs. - AFP/ch