At the same time, another general defended China's military buildup in recent years as legitimate and called a Pentagon report critical of the expansion as subjective and biased.

Hu, 62, took formal control of the military from Jiang Zemin, 78, in September, completing China's first smooth generational leadership change since 1949. But military sources say Hu, who replaced Jiang as party chief in November 2002 and president in March 2003, has yet to fully consolidate power in the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation Army.

Lieutenant-General Fu Tinggui urged senior officers to ``obey and follow the party'' in an essay on the front page of today's edition of the Study Times, the organ of the party school which trains cadres. August 1 is marked each year as Army Day.

``When the socialist movement is at a low ebb, in the face of assault and enticement from hostile forces, and when one's personal development is not smooth enough...leading military cadres must unwaveringly adhere to the party's absolute rule over the military,'' Fu said.

``These political qualifications...cannot weaken, cannot waver and cannot deviate at any time,'' said Fu, political commissar of the Beijing Military Area Command, one of China's seven military regions.

Loyalties are split between Hu and Jiang in the PLA, which plans to cut its numbers by 200,000 by the end of 2005.

Jiang, who promoted 79 men to full general rank in his 15 years in power, still wields influence over the PLA.

Major-General Peng Guangqian blasted the latest Pentagon report as more fiction than fact in a recent interview with Outlook Weekly, published by Xinhua News Agency.

The US Department of Defense report, made public in July, reflects concern over China's military modernization and economic might. ``It exaggerated the Chinese military's threat,'' Peng said. ''The content was more subjective than objective, more imagination than facts and more bias than rational.''

Peng called it ``typical Cold War mentality'' to try to block the European Union from lifting an arms embargo on China, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

The report was also aimed at finding an excuse to sell weapons to Taiwan after the Iraq war, he said.

``The United States does not wish for any country to develop rapidly,'' said Peng, of the strategy research department at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, a military think-tank.

Peng noted that the release of the report had been delayed twice since March. He indicated that it may have been watered down.