Huang was being charged with ''illegal possession of state secrets,'' Hong Kong's Cable TV said, while Huang's wife and parents were barred from attending the hearing held in a Chengdu court in central China's Sichuan Province.

The Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, a Hong Kong-based watchdog, said the trial would end in a day but no judgment would be handed down.

The center also said Huang's lawyer would apply for his release on medical parole as Huang has two lumps in his abdomen.

Huang, 46, founded the ''6.4 Tianwang'' website in 1999 to commemorate the victims in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest and promote human rights in China. He was arrested in 2000 for allegedly ''inciting subversion of state power'' by helping the victims was and sentenced to five years in prison in 2003, according to his website.

After the Sichuan earthquake in May last year that left more than 88,000 dead or missing, Huang launched an investigation into and criticized the shoddy construction blamed for the high death toll. He was arrested in June last year.

Other than Huang, environmentalist and commentator Tan Zuoren and academic Guo Quan were also scheduled to stand trial over subversion charges later this month for their roles in exposing the shoddy construction, the center said.

==Kyodo