The Communist Party of China (CPC) will continue to present a fine image to the world showing that it keeps pace with the times and blazes new trails in a pioneering spirit, Hu Jintao, the CPC's newly elected top leader, said in Beijing on Friday.

"The whole Party and people fro m all ethnic groups will unite more closely and concentrate on construction and development so as to continue pushing forward China's reform, opening up and modernization drive,'' Hu said soon after he was elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee.

In a brief speech made while meeting the press for the first time in his new capacity, Hu pledged that the new central leadership would unswervingly and persistently adhere to the ideas contained in the report delivered by his predecessor Jiang Zemin at the 16th Party congress from November 8-14.

The 59-year-old Hu rose to the pinnacle position of the Party at the First Plenary Session of 16th Central Committee of the CPC on Friday morning.

The plenum also elected members and an alternate member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and members of the Political Bureau's Standing Committee.

In accordance with nominations by the Standing Committee, the plenum adopted a list of members of the Secretariat of the Central Committee and decided on the formation of the CPC Central Military Commission.

Jiang Zemin was re-elected chairman of CPC Central Military Commission.

The plenum also approved the list of secretary, deputy secretaries and Standing Committee members of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), who were elected at CCDI's First Plenary Session on Friday.

Wu Guanzheng was elected secretary of CCDI at the session.

Hu led out the other eight members of the newly elected Politburo Standing Committee -- Wu Bangguo, Wen Jiabao, Jia Qinglin, Zeng Qinghong, Huang Ju, Wu Guanzheng, Li Changchun and Luo Gan -- to meet the press on Friday morning at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

"We will live up to the great trust of the entire Party and the expectations of people across the country, hold high the great banner of Deng Xiaoping Theory, fully implement the important thought of `Three Represents,' and earnestly fulfil the various tasks put forth by the 16th Party congress," Hu told more than 400 foreign and Chinese reporters covering the week-long congress.

On behalf of the newly elected central leadership, Hu thanked all Party members for their trust.

"We will closely unite and depend on the entire Party and people of all ethnic groups across China, carry on past accomplishments and keep pace with the times, and work hard to build a well-off society in an all-around way, accelerating socialist modernization and striving to usher in a brand new situation for the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics,'' Hu said.

The just-concluded 16th Party congress was "a united, triumphant and highly progressive meeting, as well as a meeting which carried on the legacy of the past and opened a new chapter for the future,'' he said.

The congress established the important thought of "Three Represents'' as the Party's long-term guiding ideology, on a par with Marxism-Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng Xiaoping Theory.

"That's a historic policy decision and a historic contribution,'' he said.

The points and policies in the report delivered by Jiang reflect the will of the entire CPC and represent the aspirations of people of all ethnic groups in China. They are the political declaration and action plan for the Party in the new development stage of the new century, Hu said.

The new general secretary said he firmly believed that China's tomorrow will surely be better, and China's development and progress will increasingly contribute to the peace and development of the whole world.

"The whole Party and people from all ethnic groups will unite more closely and concentrate on construction and development."

"We will live up to the great trust of the entire Party and the expectations of people across the country."

(chinadaily)