BEIJING - CHINA laid to rest on Sunday the man handpicked by a dying Mao Zedong to succeed him as Communist Party chairman, Hua Guofeng, marking the passing of one of the last of an old guard of leaders who lived through the Mao era.

Hua, who died on Aug 20 aged 87, helped ease the country out of the chaotic Cultural Revolution, but was later toppled by reformist leader Deng Xiaoping.

Hua was cremated at Babaoshan, the cemetery for the Communist Party's elite in a western suburb of Beijing, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Hua was 'an outstanding CPC member, a long-tested and loyal Communist fighter and a proletarian revolutionary who once held important leading posts in the CPC and the government', Xinhua said.

A source close to the family told Reuters that both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao visited Hua in hospital before he died, in a sign of respect to the former leader.

Hua, once fondly referred to by state media as the 'Wise Leader', became Communist Party chairman in September 1976 after Mao was quoted as saying at his death bed: 'With you in charge my heart is at ease.'

Weeks later, Hua approved a military plot to arrest Mao's widow, Jiang Qing, and other members of her reviled Gang of Four who were blamed for Mao's excesses during the tumultuous, decade-long Cultural Revolution.

'His decision to arrest the Gang of Four changed China's destiny, and the Communist Party's destiny,' the source said.

'If the Gang of Four had not been arrested, there would have been more chaos.'

But after the arrest of Mao's widow, Hua floundered. He embraced the 'two whatevers' policy, imploring China to uphold whatever policies Mao had adopted and abide by whatever instructions the late chairman had made.

His remarks were eclipsed by the more pragmatic and savvy Deng, who famously admonished 'it doesn't matter if a cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice', a slogan that epitomised China's shift away from Maoism toward capitalist-style reforms.

Hua was forced to step down as premier in 1980 and Party chairman the next year as reformist Deng took the helm. -- REUTERS