Shanghai's top leader removed amid corruption allegations (2:17 p.m.)

Shanghai's top leader was dismissed Monday for alleged corruption, the government said, amid a scandal over misuse of city pension funds, a move likely to strengthen President Hu Jintao's control ahead of a key Communist Party meeting next year.

Chen Liangyu, Shanghai's Communist Party secretary, was also dismissed from the party's powerful Politburo and is being investigated by the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Chen's dismissal comes amid a top-level probe over alleged illicit investments of billions of yuan (hundreds of millions of dollars) in pension funds in real estate and other infrastructure.

"Shanghai Party chief sacked for pension scandal," the official Xinhua News Agency said in a one-line announcement. Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng was appointed acting party chief, Xinhua said.

Staff at the city government's press office said they were checking the reports but had no further comment.

The scandal involves at least one third of a 10 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) city pension fund and has already led to the removal and detention for questioning of the city's labor chief, a district governor and several prominent businessmen.

In an unusually high-profile move, China's leaders, gearing up for next year's 17th Communist Party Congress, sent investigators from Beijing to probe the allegations.

The ranks of those detained _ from executives in Shanghai's biggest industrial conglomerate to well-connected officials _ had suggested an old-fashioned purge of top city leaders might be in the offing.

The post of party chief for China's biggest city has traditionally been a stepping-stone to greater power in the central government. Because of that, top leaders usually have tried to appoint protoges who will support them.

Next year's congress will repapportion jobs among the political elite, with Chinese president and party head Hu Jintao expected to install favored leaders for his second five-year term.

Shanghai is a bastion of Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, and Chen's removal could be part of a strategy to weaken rivals in the collective leadership to better position himself and the allies he wants to maneuver into place.