Analysts said the article was the latest indication that the leadership under President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao was pushing for more separation of the party from the state and giving more power to local authorities.

The article, published by the Study Times magazine, said too much power lay with the central government and the nation must decentralise in order to catch up with reality.

It said restructuring carried out over the past 20 years had been aimed at reforming the highly centralised administrative system. Although some progress had been made, the problem had not been solved.

The article said the central government must quicken political reforms by decentralising the power structure and setting up a more efficient administrative system.

For a start, it said, party leaders had too much power and they should return some of this to various party organisations.

Official reports had earlier indicated that the party leadership was considering setting up a system under which major decisions would be approved by party congresses at various levels.

The party's affairs are now managed by a small number of standing committee members at various levels of its organisations, with party secretaries wielding considerable influence.

The article also said the party leadership should be improved and it should exercise its power according to the rule of law. It said party committees should refrain from meddling in the affairs of government departments.

'From now onwards, the State Council and the authorities at various levels should discuss, decide and promulgate documents for work under their jurisdictions,' it said. 'The central committee of the party and its various branches should not make decisions [for them].'

As part of the administrative reforms, it said the central government should clearly define its relations with local authorities and grant some independence to these authorities.

The call for decentralisation comes as provinces and municipalities have begun restructuring government departments following a similar reshuffle of central government departments in March.

Analysts said that following China's entry into the World Trade Organisation, it was already liberalising its market and opening up access to foreign investors according to an agreed timetable and so-called 'road map', part of the terms for WTO membership.

This meant local authorities should be given more power in running their own affairs, they said.

A separate Xinhua report yesterday said the central government approved Shanghai's plan to restructure its government departments, making it the first city to undertake administrative reforms at the level of the municipality or provincial level.

Mirroring the changes at the central government in March, Shanghai planned to set up a state asset-management commission to supervise the state-owned enterprises in the city on behalf of the municipal government.

It is also going to set up an economic commission, merging the functions of the original economic commission and the commission of commerce.

The city is also going to set up a food and drug administration.