Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday hailed 30 years of economic reform and said the ruling Communist Party would continue to develop "Chinese Marxism."

"We will definitely hold high the great banner of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and continue to promote the sinification of Marxism," Hu said in a speech to mark the 30th anniversary of the start of economic reform.

Hu said the party would push forward its policies for reforming and opening the economy, while maintaining stability and promoting "contemporary Chinese Marxism."

"To develop socialism with Chinese characteristics is a long-term historical task which demands persistent struggle," he said in a televised speech in front of more than
6,000 leading party members at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

"We should insist on focussing on the practical problems in reform, opening up and modernization," Hu said.

Hu, who also leads the Communist Party, said continuing economic, political and legal reforms are crucial to China's future.

"People's democracy is the lifeline of socialism, and the people's democratic rights to be masters of their own affairs are the essence and lie at the core of China's democratic politics."

"Without democracy, there would be no socialist modernization," he said.

His speech echoed another major policy address in November 2007 at a five-yearly party congress, when state media praised Hu for using the word democracy more than 60 times.

In the earlier speech, Hu promised to expand democracy and transparency within the party, but he made no mention of any wider democratic reform.

He said China's modernization drive would need "unremitting efforts by several, a dozen or even dozens of generations", meaning the party would not consider major democratic reform over the same period.

Former party leaders agreed to launch economic reforms at a meeting on December 18, 1978, two years after the death of Mao Zedong, who led the party to power in
1949.

The reforms followed the brutal communist fundamentalism of Mao's 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, which the party now officially calls the "10 years of national chaos."

Veteran revolutionary Deng Xiaoping, who was twice purged from government during the Cultural Revolution, began transforming China's closed, planned economy.

Since Deng first coined the term "socialist modernization" in 1979, China has managed three decades of rapid economic growth in its major cities and coastal areas, without allowing the development of a political opposition.

On Thursday, Hu paid tribute to the ideological guidance of Mao, Deng and the party's last leader, Jiang Zemin.

"Reform and opening up are the fundamental causes of all the achievements and progress we have made," Hu said. (dpa)