China vice-premier Huang Ju dies of illness -Phoenix TV

HONG KONG, May 9 (Reuters) Chinese Vice Premier Huang Ju died in Beijing after a long battle with cancer, Hong Kong's Phoenix Television reported today, citing unidentified sources.

Huang, 68, was ranked sixth in the Communist Party's Politburo Standing Committee, the all-powerful group of nine that rules China, where he was responsible for the key economic and financial portfolio.

It was not immediately clear who would replace him and when.

Phoenix reported the news in an on-screen ticker and said it had no further updates. The TV station, which said Huang was 69 at the time of death, appeared to be calculating Huang's age based on Chinese tradition -- under which a person is aged 1 when born.

The State Council information office declined to comment.

Two sources in Beijing also told Reuters that Huang had died.

An engineer by training, Huang emerged from the Shanghai powerbase of former leader Jiang Zemin, becoming mayor of the financial capital in 1991 and Communist Party boss there in 1994.

Huang's death comes months before the 17th Party Congress, a five-yearly meeting that makes key personnel changes and is likely to tap a younger generation of leaders to take the helm once President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao retire.

But analysts say how Huang's replacement is handled -- or whether he is replaced at all before the party congress -- could be a barometer of the degree to which Jiang's shadow hangs over Hu, who is still consolidating power four years after taking the top job.

Huang was educated at the elite Tsinghua University in Beijing, and spent more than four decades as a party member.

A native of the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, Huang was promoted in 2002 to the Politburo Standing Committee.

REUTERS GL HT1712