Whether they will be ultimately admitted to the CPC will depend on how they perform and if they can pass various procedures, Jia said following the end of the six-day Ninth Congress of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee.

The congress elected the new CPC Beijing municipal committee - headed by Jia - and the discipline inspection committee led by Yang Anjiang, as well as 59 delegates to the 16th National Congress of the CPC to be held later this year.

It also endorsed a work report given by Jia, which set a target of raising per capita gross domestic product in the capital to US$6,000 by 2008, doubling the current figure.

Jia said there had been a strong public response to General Secretary of the CPC Central Committee Jiang Zemin's speech on July 1, in which he stressed business people from the non-State sector that had met key conditions should be admitted to the CPC.

"We hold that (the speech) is a theoretical breakthrough," Jia said. "Since then, more than 90 business people in Beijing's private sector have applied for party membership."

The total number of private business people in China applying to join or having been admitted to the CPC was not available yesterday.

But Guangdong, which has pioneered China's reforms, had 18 representatives of non-public-owned enterprises taking part in the province's Party congress for the first time in its history on Monday.

Jia said, in preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games, Beijing will co-operate extensively with other parts of the world.

Co-operation with Taiwan is likely in some venues, halls and other areas, Jia said answering a question from a Taiwan reporter.

The secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee promised Beijing will preserve all historic relics in the course of its urban renovation.

(China Daily May 23, 2002)