On the cusp of a second five years as president and premier, Mr Hu and Mr Wen Jiabao are determined to strengthen the central government's hand to ensure their policies of more balanced growth are carried out in the face of opposition from regional and industrial interests.

'It's centralising power to facilitate control,' Mr Jin Zhong, a Hong Kong-based veteran China watcher, said of the changes expected when the parliament holds its annual meetings from Wednesday.

The National People's Congress, or parliament, takes place at the mid-way point of Mr Hu and Mr Wen's tenure, during which they have sought to moderate the pace of growth with a view to curbing widespread environmental degradation and reviving the lagging hinterland.

It will meet for nearly two weeks and rubber-stamp proposals endorsed by the ruling Communist Party.

The session takes place with inflation at 11-year highs and the stock market down 29 per cent from October, leaving financial policy in the world's fourth-largest economy under scrutiny.

Beijing is also scrambling to get ready for the Aug 8 opening of the Summer Olympics, a coming-out party that has raised pressure on China's rulers to reform.

New faces at the top
The parliament will agree to a series of personnel changes in top government posts following a reshuffle of Party positions last October at a five-yearly meeting that bolstered Mr Hu's grip and saw Vice-President Zeng Qinghong retire from his Party job.

Positions to be filled include at least one vice-president, four vice-premiers, the foreign policy state councillor and the defence minister, sources with ties to the leadership said.

Mr Xi Jinping, 54, is widely expected to become vice-president, underscoring his status as heir apparent to Mr Hu.

He has already been put in charge of preparations for the Olympics, a target for rights groups at odds with China's policy towards Sudan and Myanmar, amongst others, and treatment of Tibet.

Mr Li Keqiang, 52, a Hu ally, is tipped to be named the No. 1 vice-premier, setting him up to eventually succeed Wen but also handing him the potentially divisive task of overseeing streamlining of the cabinet to boost efficiency.

China is also likely to get a transport ministry and upgrade its environment watchdog to ministry status.

But plans to create a 'super-ministry' to steer the energy sector in China's the world's second-biggest oil consumer, could be put on ice after opposition from the country's big oil companies and existing energy agencies, a source and Hong Kong news reports said.

A non-Communist may be named a vice-president, two independent sources with ties to the leadership said. Mr Xu Jialu, an expert on Buddhism and currently a vice-chairman of parliament, is the front-runner.

'It's in keeping with Mr Hu Jintao's pledge to expand consultative democracy,' a source said.

New vice-premiers include Wang Qishan, who as Beijing mayor steered the capital through the SARS crisis in 2003.

He will be in charge of trade negotiations and a financial 'super-ministry' merging the banking, securities and insurance regulatory bodies.

Ms Liu Yandong will be the lone woman vice-premier.

Push and pull
The usually staid parliament will have a lot to talk about, with topics ranging from the Olympics, to snowstorms which crippled parts of the country earlier this year, to inflation.

Deputies have been told not to make hardline comments on Taiwan's presidential elections, to be held later this month, to avoid accusations of interference. China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since their split at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.

China could score a public relations coup ahead of the Olympics if parliament were to ratify the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Chinese activists have launched a petition urging it to do so, though analysts say the chances are slim.

But a leadership meeting last week declared a need to 'deepen political system reform', indicating at least the prospect of small political changes in the works.

The government has acknowledged it must respond to public concern about corruption and strengthen the rule of law, but analysts say there is a lack of consensus within the Party about how to tackle such issues.

'There is a constant push and pull struggle to make any progress whatsoever,' Mr Sidney Rittenberg, a consultant on China who knew Mao, told the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

Still, he said, Mr Hu was an 'ingenious consensus-builder, able to keep disparate and opposing forces together to drive the whole team forward'. -- REUTERS