Wang Lequan was elected secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Wednesday.

Wang, 62, was elected to the post at the first plenary session of the 7th CPC regional committee.

Wang, of Han nationality, hails from Shouguang City in east China's Shandong Province. He joined the CPC in March 1966.

Wang began working in September 1965 and received a postgraduate degree at the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

He is now a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and has served as secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regional Committee of the CPC since 2002. Wang is also the first political commissar of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps.

(Xinhua News Agency October 26, 2006)