The Communist Party of China (CPC) Tuesday started a key meeting in Beijing as a prelude to the 17th National Congress of the CPC.

The Seventh Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee is attended by 350-odd decision-makers, who are making final preparations for the congress, held once in five years.

According to schedules made public in previous meetings by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the full and alternate central committee members will discuss a draft report to be submitted to the 17th congress by the 16th CPC Central Committee, which will outline the Party's priorities for the next five years.

The plenum will also endorse a draft amendment to the Party constitution, along with a report on the Party's anti-graft work by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

It was not clear whether the current central committee, in its last session, will add new full members from the alternates to fill vacancies left by several full members, who died or have been stripped of their positions for corruption.

The 17th CPC National Congress, to convene on October 15, is "a very important meeting to be held at a time when China has entered a key stage of reform and development", according to an August Politburo meeting.

A new CPC Central Committee and a new Central Commission for Discipline Inspection will be elected at the congress.

The congress will review the Party's work in the five years since the 16th National Congress, and set directions for the advancement of the reform and opening up and socialist modernization drive, and for Party building.

In a June speech setting the tone for the congress, CPC Central Committee General Secretary Hu Jintao called on the country to promote scientific development and social harmony while adhering to emancipation of the mind, spurring the reform and opening up, and working for the building of a well-off society.