In a short release, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said that the Central Committee had proposed to remove from the country's constitution the expression that the president and vice president "shall serve no more than two consecutive terms."

It said the proposal was made public Sunday, a day ahead of a scheduled meeting of the Central Committee. It was unclear why the announcement was made ahead of that meeting.

Xi, 64, was approved to begin his second five-year term late last year and is slated to step down in 2022. But many analysts believe he wants to stay in office longer.

Xi, the general-secretary of the Central Committee, had stressed the important role of the constitution on Saturday.

"No organization or individual has the power to overstep the constitution or the law," Xinhua, in a separate report, quoted Xi as saying during a Central Committee Politburo meeting Saturday.

At a Central Committee plenary session in January, party leaders decided on a plan to write Xi's guiding principle into the constitution at the National People's Congress scheduled for next month. Xi will also be formally elected to his second term at the annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament, which opens March 5.