The national assembly in Laos has opened a four-day session which is expected to appoint the country's new leadership.
Diplomats and journalists are being excluded from the meeting and correspondents say this will make it harder to predict who will emerge to occupy the posts of president and prime minister.
They say though that the country's ageing president, Nouhak Phoumsavanh, is likely to step down, and there's speculation that he may be replaced by the ruling communist party chairman, Khamtay Siphandone.
But correspondents say that whichever personalities are appointed to the top positions, it will be the party which continues to set the political agenda.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service