Liu Yunshan tipped to lead the Central Committee Secretariat

Communist Party propaganda chief Liu Yunshan is tipped to lead the Secretariat of the party's Central Committee - another victory for the conservatives in their efforts to gain control of the party's power centre in the once-in-a-decade leadership reshuffle.

Meanwhile, in a move that confirms earlier reports that Vice-Premier Wang Qishan would be elevated to the Politburo Standing Committee, where he would lead the fight against corruption, Wang Dong, a party congress delegate and chairman of the Gansu Dayu Water-Saving Company, said the vice-premier was among the nominees for the next Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Party congress delegates will vote today on the composition of the party's top anti-graft watchdog, of which Wang Qishan is not currently a member.

As for Liu, sources with knowledge of his appointment as the Secretariat's first secretary said the party hardliner would be given a key portfolio of overseeing party and state personnel changes and major party affairs. He is almost certain to have also secured a coveted spot on the Politburo Standing Committee, which is expected to be reduced from nine to seven members.

The new line-up would be presented some time after 11am tomorrow, the congress' press office said yesterday.

Liu, 65, has been considered as a member of the faction loyal to former party secretary Jiang Zemin, although he cut his teeth in the Inner Mongolia branch of the Youth League. The party's youth outreach arm has long been regarded as a key power base of Hu Jintao and his "Youth League faction".