The CPC Central Committee is due to meet from Tuesday to Thursday. General Secretary Xi Jinping and other Communist Party leaders are reportedly discussing plans to streamline the government.

The goal is to create "super ministries" that consolidate various existing agencies with overlapping duties in broad fields such as transportation, media, energy, finance and health. Reformers say the change is urgently needed to keep the world's second-largest economy growing.

China has undergone previous rounds of government restructuring to keep pace with the changing economy. The number of ministries was reduced from 100 in 1980s to just 27 in 2008.

At the 18th CPC congress last November, the idea of building "Super Ministries" was raised again. But the meeting of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau last Saturday said the new round of government reforms should be carried out step by step. It added that any reforms should "highlight function changes and improve administrative efficiency."

The meetings this week will also approve the appointment of top government officials that will be publicly announced early next month at the annual session of the National People's Congress.

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