BEIJING - China will establish two new high-level financial watchdogs to strengthen the ruling Communist Party's oversight of its massive financial sector, state media reported on Thursday, as part of a wide-ranging plan to reform party and state institutions.

The formation of the new Central Financial Commission will "serve as the decision-making, discussion and coordination body" of the party's core 205-member Central Committee and "strengthen (its) centralized and unified leadership on financial work," according to the plan published in state news agency Xinhua.

A separate Central Financial Work Commission will also be established to "guide the ideological, political and organisation construction of the party in the financial system," the plan said.

Reuters previously reported that Beijing was planning to resurrect the elite party financial watchdog, which operated between 1998 and 2003, to increase the party's political control over the financial sector. It would be headed by a member of the Communist Party's elite seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, sources previously told Reuters.

The revival of the high-level oversight body also comes as Chinese leaders are under pressure to revive the world's second-largest economy, battered by three years of heavy COVID-19 curbs.

China will abolish the State Council's Financial Stability and Development Committee, Xinhua reported, adding that it will strive to complete the central government reforms by the end of 2023.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Editing by Toby Chopra and Mark Porter)