BEIJING, November 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - China marked the first major step in a generational change of leaders Wednesday, November 13, when a new elite Communist Party committee was provisionally elected without President Jiang Zemin and other elderly bosses.

Jiang, 76, was among six of China's current seven top leaders not returned in an initial vote for the party's new Central Committee, to which all leaders must belong, two delegates to the 16th Party Congress told Agence France-Presse (AFP) separately.

"Those six people are not on the new Central Committee list. They were not on the candidates' list," said one delegate from an eastern province, who asked not to be named.

The departing leaders, also including Premier Zhu Rongji and party number two Li Peng, both 74, form virtually all China's currently seven-member top ruling body, the party's Politburo Standing Committee.

The results from the previous day's preliminary vote by the 2,114 delegates to the Congress have little practical significance, given that the whole leadership changeover is being rigorously controlled by top cadres.

However, it marks the first symbolic step towards official retirement for a generation of 70-something leaders who took power in the aftermath of the brutally crushed Tiananmen Square democracy protests of 1989.

"The result of the preliminary vote is out. It is the overall result," a delegate from a northern province told AFP.

"The only one [of the top seven leaders] on the list is Hu Jintao," he said.

Hu, 59, has been widely expected to take over as party head at the end of the Congress Thursday, November 14, and then as president at the annual meeting of China's parliament next spring, when other leaders would also give up their state positions.

The whole process has been held in secret, meaning that the first real sign a leadership change was even taking place came Monday, November 11, when a delegate said the six leaders were not on a candidates' list for the 300 or so-strong Central Committee.

Tuesday's preliminary vote served mainly to make sure delegates were voting as they had been ordered, avoiding surprises when the main poll is taken Thursday, November 14 - the Congress's closing day.

The delegate from the eastern province said some voters had added names to their candidates' list to include some of the retiring leaders, but that this had not secured their re-election.

The entire process is being carefully choreographed to ensure there are no surprises, experts said.

"In a democratic system, a preliminary election has some effect on the following election," said Wu Guoguang, a former senior party official who is now a political scientist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"But for this, they just want to prove that delegates' votes will be the same as the leadership expectations," he told AFP.

"If your vote is not the same, they will 'work on you' and change your preference."

A series of province-wide meetings to discuss the vote at tightly-guarded hotels around Beijing broke up late Wednesday, with delegates seen leaving.

One revealed that the post-Congress meeting at which the new top party line-up would be unveiled would begin Thursday.

Asked whether it would start on the same day as the Congress closing ceremony, he told AFP: "Yes, that is correct."

When that meeting is over - either Thursday or Friday November 14, 15 - the new party leaders will emerge onto a stage in order of seniority, the traditional unveiling method for a new Chinese leadership line-up.

The Congress is also widely expected to approve an amendment to the party charter proposed by President Jiang, which would formally permit the radical step of allowing capitalists membership.

This is an attempt by Jiang to secure his legacy, experts said, adding he appears to be trying to pack allies into key party positions in an effort to retain considerable clout.

A delegate from the eastern province of Jiangsu indicated Wednesday that a compromise over power between the generations could suit the party faithful.

"We are confident in the younger generation. We think they are capable," he told AFP during a break from a meeting, declining to be named.