Huang

Xinhua news agency said only that Huang had died in Beijing of an "illness," but widespread reports had earlier said he was suffering from pancreatic cancer.

 Huang, who served as Shanghai's top official before assuming a key role at the national level, was a protege of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin, his onetime boss in the booming eastern metropolis.

 Huang was placed in charge of economic policy matters when he rose to the elite Standing Committee of the Politburo -- China's highest decision-making body -- in 2002.

 His death creates an opening in China's inner circle of power ahead of a key five-yearly Communist Party congress later this year, at which President Hu Jintao is expected to stack the leadership with his own supporters.

 An obituary issued by the central authorities called Huang "an excellent member of the CPC (Communist Party), a long-tested and faithful Communist fighter and an outstanding leader of the party and the state," Xinhua said.

 Although the health of China's leaders has long been a state secret, the government announced in March last year that Huang was ill and would not attend all official functions.

 The government has never confirmed who took over Huang's job of managing China's booming economy following his retreat from everyday public life.

 His last public appearance was at the National People's Congress in March when he urged delegates from Shanghai to fall in behind Hu's anti-corruption drive that has seen the sacking of Huang protege Chen Liangyu.

 Chen, Huang's successor as the top party boss in Shanghai, was the highest Communist Party official to be sacked for corruption in China in more than a decade.

 Analysts said Huang's death would likely have little effect on the communist power structure or on policy-making.

 "His death won't have any influence on the trend in China's politics, because he intended to step down after the 17th party congress," Hu Xingdou, a professor of economics at the Beijing Institute of Technology, told AFP.

 "In fact, he had actually stopped working a long time ago, and (Vice Premier) Wu Yi took over his job," the professor said Saturday.

 The tough-talking Wu last month led a Chinese delegation to Washington for high-level economic talks with US officials.

 "I do not believe that there will be much of an impact," Joseph Cheng, a noted China political watcher at City University of Hong Kong, said last month when rumours had swirled of Huang's death.

 Hu will likely replace Huang with a neutral candidate who would neither be loyal to Jiang's "Shanghai clique," nor to Hu's political faction, which has largely come from the ruling party's China Youth League, observers say.

 The standing committee's current line-up is largely made up of people loyal to Jiang.

 The next standing committee, to be unveiled at the party congress, is expected to usher in China's next top leader, who will be named party head and likely president after Hu finishes his second term in 2012, Cheng said.

 Such a political candidate could be named a vice premier during the coming shakeup.

 Huang was born in Jiashan city in China's eastern Zhejiang province in September 1938 and joined the ruling Communist Party in March 1966.

 He graduated with a degree in engineering from the prestigious Tsinghua University before launching a career in the machine manufacturing industry in Shanghai, where he soon began his political career.

 He served as Shanghai's mayor from 1991 to 1995, before being appointed as top Communist Party official of the eastern metropolis, which enjoys a higher ranking than mayor.

Agence France Presse