BEIJING, Oct 21: China has formally arrested a New York Times researcher who was detained last month for allegedly leaking state secrets - a crime that could be punishable by death, his lawyers said on late Thursday.

Zhao Yan was held on September 16, only days after the newspaper reported that former president Jiang Zemin would resign from his top military post at a high-level secretive meeting of the Communist Party.

"The prosecution authorities approved his official arrest on Wednesday," lawyer Mo Shaoping said.

"His charge was illegally providing state secrets overseas," said Mo. "The maximum penalty under the Chinese law is death sentence."

In China, police or security services must apply for a formal arrest within 37 days of detaining a suspect or else they must release them.

Mo said authorities had not referred to any specific acts, although there were suspicions that they were linked to his work at the New York Times.-AFP