BEIJING (AFP) -- China's Communist Party will on Thursday unveil the new set of top leaders who will take over the reins of the country for the next decade, one day after their week-long congress ends, the party said Monday.

The widely expected timing was confirmed to AFP by staff organising press coverage of the Communist Party congress under way in Beijing, which is held every five years to shuffle the top leadership of the party.

Chinese President Hu Jintao, who has been in power ten years, is widely expected to hand over the reins of the ruling party to his vice president, Xi Jinping, a tradition that takes place a day after the close of the congress.

The leadership -- arrived at via back-room political horse-trading among party factions -- is revealed to the nation by marching out in a line before cameras at Beijing's Great Hall of the People.

Party staff told AFP the new Politburo Standing Committee -- the top-level body now consisting of nine members that rules China -- would "meet the press" on Thursday. The party had thus far not officially confirmed the timing.

Xi is widely expected to march out in first position on the committee, indicating he is the new party leader, and will then formally be named the country's president next March by the rubber-stamp parliament.

Xi's fellow Standing Committee member, Vice Premier Li Keqiang, is also strongly expected to move up in the committee's pecking order and be put on track to be named premier in March, replacing incumbent Wen Jiabao.

They would take over at a challenging time when China's powerhouse economy is suffering a rare slowdown and amid growing demands for change from the country's vocal netizens.

If things go according to tradition, Xi and Li would be expected to be in office for 10 years. However, the Standing Committee is typically tweaked each five years with a shuffling of lower-ranking members.