Top leaders of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) discussed on Tuesday two important documents reviewing the central government's work over the past year and setting the guidelines for the country's development in the coming five years.

The leaders, during the discussion, stressed the need for continued innovation, scientific development and economic restructuring.

The meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, chaired by Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, took a detailed look at the draft government work report for last year and the draft guidelines for the national economic and social development program for the 11th Five-Year Period (2006-2010).

Both documents will be submitted for examination and adoption by the National People's Congress, at its annual full session slated for March.

After the country's achievements in 2005, Hu urged all Party committees and governments at all levels in the country to facilitate innovation and economic restructuring.

"The year 2006 is the first year of the 11th Five-Year Period, and we face onerous tasks in developing and maintaining stability," says a statement from the meeting.

The statement says Party committees and governments need to put public interests first while strengthening the overall development of the country's economic, political, cultural and social structure.

The meeting calls on Party committees and governments to maintain stable macro-economic policies, which are to be implemented in a fiscally prudent manner in order to expand consumer demand, maintain investment in fixed assets and ensure stable and fast economic development.

More support should be given to farmers, rural areas and agricultural development in a bid to build a "new socialist countryside" and develop modern farming, thus increasing grain production and farmers' income, improving infrastructure construction and pushing forward a comprehensive reform in the rural areas, says the meeting's statement.

Efforts should also be made to enhance the country's innovation capability, build up an environmentally-friendly, resources-saving society, and better coordinate regional development.

The meeting also underlines other social undertakings, including pushing forward nine-year compulsory education, implementing proactive employment policies, building a social security network, and enhancing health care and industrial safety.

(Xinhua News Agency February 22, 2006)