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BEIJING - The elite of China's Communist Party opened 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.
Amid heavy security, more than 2,200 delegates gathered 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.
Wu Bangguo, second ranking member in the party's elite Politburo Standing Committee, declared the Congress open, in nationally televised proceedings.
Hu then began delivering a speech outlining the party's achievements over the past five years and its agenda for the next five.
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.
Authorities have ramped up security leading up to the Congress in an effort to ensure no voices of dissent are heard, with dozens of activists and other critics of the government detained or placed under surveillance.
Police lined every corner of the main road leading to the Great Hall of the People on Monday, while the adjacent Tiananmen Square was closed to the public and turned into a car park for Congress delegates.
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. - AFP/ir
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