Jiang Zemin absent from party congress finale

Former Communist Party general secretary Jiang Zemin did not show up at a gathering on Thursday afternoon at which new party chief Xi Jinping praised his predecessor Hu Jintao for standing down fully from his top party posts.

Jiang, 86, had been in the limelight ahead of the once-a-decade power transfer. It was not clear why Jiang did not attend the gathering.

State television reported that a slew of party veterans, including Hu's 96-year-old mentor Song Ping, former premier Li Peng and his successor Zhu Rongji had attended Thursday's gathering.

Xi told the gathering of more than 2,600 party congress delegates and party veterans that Hu and six other members of the previous Politburo Standing Committee had "taken a lead to step down" from all their party posts, showing their "high virtue and nobility of character", a prime-time China Central Television news programme reported on Thursday night.

"We have high respect for them," Xi said.

Hu broke the precedent set by Jiang 10 years ago by not staying on as chairman of the party's powerful Central Military Commission and instead handing leadership of the party and military body to Xi on Thursday.