BEIJING, Sept 20: China's freshly retired military leader Jiang Zemin threw his weight behind his successor Hu Jintao on Monday and advised the armed forces never to renounce the use of force to reclaim Taiwan.

The comments came a day after China announced that the party's Central Committee had accepted Jiang's retirement as chairman of the commission, his last formal position of power, and installed president and party chief Hu in his place.

"Comrade Jintao's taking over as Central Military Commission chairman is completely up to standards," state TV quoted Mr Jiang as saying at an expanded meeting of the commission on Monday.

The system of one person acting as party chief, state president and head of the Central Military Commission "is not only necessary in such a large party and large nation as ours, it is also the most appropriate method", he said.

Jiang, shown on China Central Television wearing a military uniform without insignia, said the military should never drop the threat of force to reclaim Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of China's sovereign territory.

"On the Taiwan issue, we should, with the greatest sincerity, make the greatest efforts to realise the peaceful unification. But we can never promise to give up the use of force. This is a very important political choice," he said.

Jiang and Hu both called for unity in the military. "If the military is internally united, and the military and the people are united, there is no difficulty that cannot be overcome," he said. Hu, said: "Unity is strength. Unity is victory."

"To complete our military's glorious historical mission and realise our military's strategic goals, we must unite more closely and further solidify the current favourable situation of unity and energetic advancement," Hu added.

Jiang called Hu the right candidate to lead the military's commanding body and said everyone should support the party's decision to make Hu chairman of the military commission and "resolutely support his work".

He said he was happy to finally retire having completed his "historical duty and fulfilled my historical responsibility". He reminded the nation that even though he was retired, he was still watching.

"Even though I have stepped down, my heart is always with the military," he said. "I am still a member of the Communist party. I will still pay attention to the development and construction of the military." -Reuters