Chinese Vice President Zeng Qinghong retired from the Communists? upper ranks yesterday, bolstering Party boss Hu Jintao?s grip on power and clearing the way for a younger generation of potential successors.

Zeng, 68, a powerful Party organization boss promoted by Hu?s predecessor, Jiang Zemin, was left off the newly elected Central Committee of 204 full members, Xinhua news agency reported. His departure, an influx of recruits into the Central Committee, and changes to the Party charter all underscored Hu?s growing clout as he launched himself into five more years in charge of the world?s fourth biggest economy.

?Hu has the power; it?s now up to him to decide how he wants to use it and what he wants to do?, said Li Datong, a former editor at a Party newspaper who now publishes political analyses. ?But Hu won?t be adventurous. That?s not in his nature, and the Party and country have already formed interest groups that any leader would find it very difficult to move.?

Delegates wound up the five-yearly Congress by unanimously agreeing to write Hu?s trademark slogans into the charter, overshadowing those of Jiang. Hu was also the top vote-getter in the tightly controlled ballot for the Committee, winning all but two of the 2 235 votes, a delegate said.

Zeng?s departure from the Committee along with two other leaders, security chief Luo Gan, 72, and anti-corruption boss Wu Guanzheng, 69, indicates Hu will be able to announce the promotion of potential successors soon after the Congress ends.

Vice Premier Wu Yi ? one of the few women in China?s political elite and an experienced trade tsar ? was left off as well, indicating she is also likely to leave government around next March when the national parliament meets.

But Jia Qinglin, 67, a long-time ally of Jiang, remained. He has long been shadowed by claims he let corruption run rampant in coastal Fujian province in the 1990s. Jia may stay as head of the country?s Party-controlled advisory body to parliament as he was young enough to escape an informal retirement rule forcing out leaders born before 1940 - a demand that apparently claimed Zeng.

The full members of the new Committee will appoint a Politburo of a few dozen members and a Politburo Standing Committee, the innermost ring of power with possibly nine members, which will be revealed to-day.

The Party charter will now feature Hu?s vows to create a ?harmonious society? cleansed of conflict and a ?scientific outlook on development? promising to balance economic growth with efforts to clean up pollution and create a more equal society.

That Hu has now been able to elevate his key ideas with many years still in office shows his growing influence, said analysts. Hu?s predecessor, Jiang, took 13 years before he was able to push his trademark notions into the Party charter shortly before his retirement in 2002.

The power behind the slogans

More than slogans, the membership of the elite bodies will tell how much power Hu wields, how he intends to use it, and who Hu?s potential successors and rivals are.

Li Keqiang, Party boss of the northeastern industrial province of Liaoning, who worked under Hu in the Communist Youth League, is a front-runner for promotion. The inner core is also likely to include Shanghai Party boss Xi Jinping and other faces who do not necessarily have longstanding ties with Hu.

Hu Jintao graciously escorted the retired Jiang at the close of the Congress. But Hu?s public deference did not mean Jiang was still a major power, said Li, the editor.

Chris BUCKLEY