Du Qinglin was elected secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday.

Du, 60, was elected to the post at the first plenary session of the 9th CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee held in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

A native of Panshi county, in northeast China's Jilin province, Du joined the CPC in 1966. He graduated from Northeast Normal University in 1984.

Du worked as secretary of the CPC Provincial Committee in the southernmost Hainan province from 1998 to 2001. He took up the post of minister of agriculture in August 2001 before being appointed secretary of the Sichuan Provincial Committee of the CPC in December 2006 by the CPC Central Committee. He was elected chairman of the standing committee of the provincial People's Congress in January 2007.

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)