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BEIJING – China's leadership faces a knotty choice in how to finish offfallen politician Bo Xilai without further damaging the CommunistParty's image: Purge him the old-fashioned way — in secret— or run him through a public trial. Analysts and a veteran party member say leaders are leaning towarda trial. But either way, the challenge is to prevent luridallegations that Bo abused his power and that his wife was involvedin the murder of a British businessman from upsetting aonce-a-decade leadership transition just months away. "Bo's political life is at an end," said Li Datong, a longtimestate media editor forced from a senior editing job for broachingsensitive subjects. "But the party will work to ensure that thisgoes no bigger and harms their image no more than absolutelypossible." After months of investigation and high-level deliberations, leadersbelieve a trial will have more public legitimacy, according toanalysts and a veteran party member who has been informed ofprogress in the talks and who spoke on condition of anonymitybecause of the sensitivity of discussing the party's innerworkings. The Communist Party's internal investigators are working withprosecutors to whittle down the charges to portray Bo's infractionsas individual acts unrelated to the system, the party member said. While the unproven allegations against Bo range from illegalwiretapping to illicit sexual liaisons, the ones that likelyreflect worst on the party involve graft and flouting basic laws.Many Chinese see those vices as endemic among their leaders,despite repeated avowals by the party to end them. Putting Bo, 62, on trial would highlight how much publicexpectations in China are changing the ways the party must operate.In its state-planned, totalitarian heyday, the party never felt itneeded to show accountability or publicly explain a purge. In the party's last major internal crisis — the TiananmenSquare democracy movement in 1989 — the leadership split overdispatching the military to quell the protests. Party GeneralSecretary Zhao Ziyang was ousted, but never expelled, for hisopposition and spent more than 15 years under house arrest untilhis death. Now, after decades of rising prosperity and the spread of theInternet, many Chinese expect the government to be more transparentand accountable. Bo, 62, amassed a big public following as party boss of Chongqing— a mega-city with a surrounding region the size of Austria.His reputation for cracking down on organized crime and championingsocial fairness and communist nostalgia made him popular amongpoorer Chinese and those who identify themselves as leftists. Yethe also alienated colleagues, who saw his populist flamboyance as athreat to the party's preferred low-key ways of doing business. After a longtime aide fled to a U.S. consulate in February anddivulged suspicions that Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, had been involved inthe death of British businessman Neil Heywood, his detractors movedto bring him down. Bo was sacked as Chongqing's leader inmid-March, and a month later suspended from the Politburo andplaced under investigation for unspecified transgressions. His wifefaces criminal charges. His popularity makes Bo's case particularly tricky and bolsters thechance for a trial, analysts said. Both Bo's sympathizers amongcommunist conservatives and their more liberal rivals are demandingone, said Cheng Li, a Chinese politics expert at the BrookingsInstitution in Washington. "It will be something between a secret trial and a semi-open publictrial, but even then it will be difficult to control entirely," Lisaid. State media raised expectations for a trial in the wake of Bo'souster by repeatedly declaring that no one is above the law andthat the legal process must run its course. When that might happen is not clear. The leadership handover— in which President Hu Jintao and most others will cedetheir posts to Vice President Xi Jinping and a new group of leaders— will formally take place at a congress expected in thefall. An announcement about Bo is expected well before then. However, thetrial itself could come months after the congress is over. The next expected step is for the party's Central Commission forDiscipline and Inspection to issue a ruling upholding theaccusations against Bo and sending him for criminal prosecution. Bo's case will be discussed by the leadership at the standingcommittee's final meeting before the congress, likely at theseaside Beidaihe resort in mid-summer, according to analysts andparty members. The leaders have "decided to wrap up Bo's case as early as Augustso as to clear the biggest political uncertainty ahead of thecongress," Wang Xiangwei, the editor of Hong Kong's South ChinaMorning Post, who is thought to have close ties to the Chinesepropaganda apparatus, wrote in an editorial Monday. Bo is currently believed to be under house arrest in Beijing, whilehis wife and a household aide are in formal detention for theinvestigation into Heywood's death. The aide and ex-police chief,Wang Lijun, who went to the consulate is believed to be in thecustody of China's main intelligence service. He could face thedeath penalty for treason, though he's expected to receive leniencyfor providing evidence against Bo and Gu. In a sign that authorities are trying to dampen speculation, statemedia has stopped reporting on Bo's case, and reporters say they'vebeen told not to write anything about him. The option of purging Bo but leaving him under house arrest is seenas risky because it could allow him to keep in contact withsupporters, analysts said. Officials used to flock to see Zhao, theparty leader purged after Tiananmen, when he was allowed quiettrips outside of Beijing while under house arrest. "They simply have to put him on trial and then in prison. There isno way they could allow him to travel and draw supporters," saidWang Juntao, a scholar and dissident sentenced to 13 years inprison for advising students during the 1989 protests. ___ Associated Press reporter Isolda Morillo contributed to thisreport. 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