HONG KONG, May 18 (Reuters) - China will name a Paris-trained scientist who is not a member of the ruling Communist Party as health minister, a Hong Kong newspaper reported on Friday.

The South China Morning Post cited unidentified sources as saying that news of Chen Zhu's appointment had "been going on for a while" and that people had been surprised that it was not announced along with other key appointments in April.

Chen will replace Gao Qiang, who stepped in when the former health minister Zhang Wenkang was sacked after the SARS crisis. The newspaper did not say when the appointment would be announced.

Chen would be the second non-communist to be given such a key appointment after Wan Gang, who was made science and technology minister in April.

Wan was a German-trained automobile engineer for Audi <NSUG.DE>.

Chen, 54, is a vice president of the Chinese Academy of Science and director of the Chinese Human Genome Centre in Shanghai and Shanghai Institute of Haematology at Ruijin Hospital.

"His (Chen's) appointment is also intended to illustrate that meritocracy is playing an increasingly important role as the central government seeks to appoint academics to top policymaker posts in the social and financial fields," the post reported.

Chen received his doctoral degree at the University of Paris VII's St Louis Hospital in 1989, the post reported.

AlertNet news is provided by