'Leading team' to spearhead drive for reform, party plenum resolves

A central "leading team" will be set up to spearhead reform efforts, underscoring the eagerness of the new leadership to overcome chronic obstacles to deepening reforms.

Leaders said yesterday the team would "comprehensively deepen reforms".

It would be responsible for co-ordinating them, carrying them out and then monitoring their implementation, according to the communiqué released after the conclusion of the third plenum of the Central Committee.

The format of the high-level body underscores the leadership's resolve to reinvigorate the reform agenda, which has stagnated as powerful vested interests - corrupt officials and state-owned monopolies - held back efforts to achieve a fairer distribution of wealth and resources.

"It signals that China's reforms will enter into a new era, with the leadership vowing to improve their plans, undeterred by vested interests," said Liu Shanying , a political researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

The reforms will involve redefining local government function and the relationship between the central and local governments on such matters as property rights and the controversial hukou household registration system.