The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Friday completed preparations for the Party's national congress by approving two key documents - amendments to the Party Constitution and a report by the 16th Central Committee of the CPC.

The 7th Plenary Session of the CPC's 16th Central Committee discussed and agreed to submit the documents to the 17th National Congress of the CPC, scheduled to start on Monday.

The CPC Central Committee's Political Bureau presided over the plenum, which was addressed by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, according to a communiqu released after the plenum.

Hu explained the draft work report to be presented by the CPC Central Committee to the national congress, which outlines the Party's priorities for the next five years.

The Party congress is expected to finetune policies to deal with a slew of social ills marked by a widening wealth gap after three decades of blistering economic growth.

Wu Bangguo, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, elaborated on the draft amendment to the Party Constitution at the meeting. The communiqu did not release details of the amendment.

The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee said last month that the amendment will "reflect the major strategic thoughts the present CPC Central Committee has set forth since 2002", such as the scientific concept of development.

The last amendment was made at the CPC's 16th National Congress in November 2002, when the important thoughts of "Three Represents" were written into the Party Constitution to join Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory.

A total of 190 members and 152 alternate members of the CPC Central Committee attended the four-day plenum, which concluded on Friday, with members of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and leading officials of relevant departments attending as non-voting members.

The central committee added four new full numbers from the alternates on the plenum to fill the vacancies left by several full members, who died or have been stripped of their positions for corruption.

(China Daily October 13, 2007)