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BEIJING - The elite of China's Communist Party were due to open their five-yearly Congress here on Monday, an event widely expected to see President Hu Jintao endorsed as the nation's leader for another five years.
More than 2,200 delegates will gather at the Great Hall of the People from 9:00 am (0100 GMT) for a week of meetings during which they will discuss and approve the party's agenda for the coming five years.
The event will also see a reshuffle amid the party's top ranks that could see a successor to Hu emerge who will then be groomed to take over as party chief and president following the next Congress in 2012.
A Congress spokesman said on Sunday that the party would change its constitution at the Congress to incorporate Hu's ideology of "scientific outlook on development".
The move to include Hu's ideology in the constitution is widely seen as a sign that the president has consolidated his power after succeeding Jiang Zemin five years ago.
Scientific development is a catchphrase for a broad concept that, in general, seeks to correct many of the imbalances that have accompanied China's historic economic development of the past three decades.
While many millions of people have been lifted out of poverty during the frantic modernisation, it has come at a huge social and environmental cost.
"(China will) pursue a scientific outlook on development that makes economic and social development people-oriented, comprehensive, balanced and sustainable," Hu said in a speech outlining his philosophy last year.
Hu, 64, and Premier Wen Jiabao, 65, are regarded as certainties to remain keep their party posts for another five years.
But the reshuffle of other positions in the nine-member Standing Committee of the Politburo, the most powerful organ in the party, will be closely watched to see who will emerge as Hu's most likely successor.
Li Keqiang, the 52-year-old party boss of the northeastern province of Liaoning and an ally of Hu, is seen as a front-runner to be promoted into the Standing Committee. Another is Xi Jinping, 54, the party chief of Shanghai. - AFP/ir
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