China's plan to constitutionally guarantee the right to hold private property for the first time since the 1949 communist revolution is a step closer to taking effect after parliamentary leaders approved the measure.

Leaders of the National People's Congress approved a proposed constitutional amendment over the weekend and scheduled a vote in March by the full legislature.

The measure, which says "private property obtained legally shall not be violated," appears certain to win approval. It already has been endorsed by the ruling Communist Party as essential in pushing forward China's economic reforms.

It was approved during the weekend by the NPC Standing Committee, a body headed by the party's No. 2 leader, Wu Bangguo. The comittee handles lawmaking work when the full NPC, which meets only two weeks a year, is out of session.

Chinese law already recognizes private property, but entrepreneurs who are driving the country's economic development lobbied for a constitutional guarantee.

The amendment is expected to lead to legal changes improving the country's legal framework for trading real estate, stocks and bonds and other property.

It also could help entrepreneurs get access to financing by giving them legal status that could encourage state banks, which lend mostly to government companies, to do more business with them.