Beijing ? A day after President Jiang Zemin outlined his blueprint for China’s future, Communist Party delegates sequestered themselves Saturday to tackle their most important task – choosing the leaders who will guide the world’s most populous country through coming decades of change.

More than 2,000 delegates from across China have descended on the capital for the party congress, a weeklong gathering held every five years. As the congress entered its second day, most delegates disappeared from public view as closed-door meetings began.

The top issue: choosing new members of the party’s Central Committee.

“Talks are under way now about personnel changes,” said Tan Li, a delegate from the southwestern province of Sichuan. “It’s going to take some time. It’s not easy.”

The committee, which now has 193 members, will in turn appoint the all-powerful Politburo.

All but one of the seven current inner-sanctum members of the Politburo are expected to retire.

The Central Committee will also anoint the successor of Jiang, who is expected to step down as party general secretary, China’s most powerful job, at the end of this congress. He is also expected to resign as president in March after sealing his legacy – inviting entrepreneurs to join the party.

Most of the few delegates who did appear outside conference rooms refused to answer questions from reporters. But some confirmed the intense negotiations by high-ranking party members in the inner chambers of the Great Hall of the People, an enormous building facing Beijing’s central Tiananmen Square.

The party is expected to usher in a new generation of leaders, many in their 50s, to replace Jiang, 76, and his contemporaries. The favorite to replace him as both party secretary and president is the vice president, Hu Jintao, 59.

The leadership change will be the first orderly turnover of power in the history of the party.