The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Beijing

China's ruling Communist Party began closed-door discussions on Thursday to settle on a new lineup for its ruling council, even as a rising political star promised more openness and accountability.

The Party's five-yearly Congress has begun considering a preliminary list of candidates for the Central Committee -- a body of about 200 full members who meet once or twice a year to discuss and endorse major decisions, Xinhua news agency reported.

Later in the week, the more than 2,200 carefully vetted Congress delegates will vote, with firm guidance from senior leaders, on a new Central Committee likely to include an influx of younger, rising officials.

The Committee will then stage similar controlled votes for a new Politburo and Politburo Standing Committee -- the much smaller inner-circles of power in the top-down state.

Underscoring the sheer secrecy of Beijing politics, state media did not disclose the names of preliminary candidates. But one leader likely to rise into the central leadership at the end of the week-long meeting said the Party wanted to be more open and accountable as citizens grew richer and more demanding.

"Political system reform is an important constitutive part of China's overall reforms," Li Yuanchao, Party secretary of prosperous Jiangsu province in the nation's east, told a small gathering of reporters.