HEFEI, CHINA: The wife of a former Chinese leader at the center of a scandal that has rocked the Communist party did not deny murder during her one-day trial, which ended yesterday with no verdict, the court said.

Gu Kailai's murder trial is the latest stage in a scandal that has brought down her husband Bo Xilai and exposed deep divisions among China's leaders ahead of a generational handover of power that starts later this year.

Prosecutors said the former lawyer fed poison to 41-year-old British businessman Neil Heywood after going to drink with him in the hotel room where he was found dead last November, court official Tang Yigan told journalists.

Gu's government-appointed lawyer did not challenge the claim, but said that she had "made significant contributions by reporting offences by other people" and her cooperation should be taken into account, Tang said.

He gave no further detail, but state news agency Xinhua reported shortly after the hearing in the eastern city of Hefei that four police officials would go on trial for "covering up" Gu's alleged crimes.

All four worked in the southwestern city of Chongqing, where Heywood died, and where Bo was Communist party secretary until he was sacked in March.

In a sign of the huge sensitivity of the case, no foreign media were allowed into the Hefei court, although two British diplomats attended, in a rare concession. Tang said some of Heywood's friends and family were also there.

Scores of uniformed and plain-clothes police were stationed outside the court, where a female protester was seen being dragged away and thrown into a police vehicle as the hearing got under way.

Gu's trial has drawn comparisons with that of Chinese leader Mao Zedong's widow Jiang Qing, who was convicted for fomenting the tumultuous Cultural Revolution.

Jiang was sentenced to death but this was later commuted to life in prison, as is often the case for high-profile defendants in China.

A lawyer acting for co-accused Zhang Xiaojun, an aide to the Bo family, also did not raise any objection to the charge during the brief hearing in the Hefei Intermediate Court, said Tang.

Zhang is accused of having carried the poison when Gu went to visit Heywood on Nov. 13 in his hotel room in Chongqing, said the court official, reading from a prepared script.

"The People's Prosecutorate of Hefei city deems that there are clear crime facts and irrefutable and substantial evidence showing that defendants Gu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun committed murder by poisoning," he said.

"Gu Kailai is the prime offender and Zhang Xiaojun is an accomplice."

Gu, a former international lawyer, saw her life of wealth and privilege ended abruptly when she was accused earlier this year of poisoning Heywood.

The scandal ended the political career of her husband Bo, a high-flying but divisive Communist official known for his aggressive crackdown on organized crime.