Zhou, 64, was appointed Public Security Minister in 2002 following what many ordinary Chinese regarded as his iron-fist rule of the southwestern province of Sichuan.

During his stint as party chief of Sichuan between 1999 and 2002, he apparently impressed the leadership with his crackdown on the banned Falungong spiritual movement and Tibetan groups, as well as his tight control of the media.

Overseas Chinese media have criticised Zhou's tenure as the nation's security chief, highlighting what they said were special task forces set up to crackdown on China's increasingly widespread social unrest.

Born in east China's Jiangsu province, he was trained as an oil exploration engineer. He joined the party at the age of 22 and spent the 1960s and 1970s working in the oil sector.

By the mid-1980s, he was vice minister of petroleum industry and from 1996, he was the general manager of China's largest oil producer, China National Petroleum Corporation.

Many observers have said former president Jiang Zemin, who stepped down as party chief in 2002 and continues to have some influence in the secretive world of Chinese politics, has been crucial to Zhou's successful political career.

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