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Four policeman accused of covering up the murder of Briton Neil Heywood are to go on trial in China, a day after the wife of a former top politician was tried for the killing, BBC reported.

The four are all senior officers from Chongqing, where the UK businessman was killed in November 2011.

On Thursday a one-day trial was held for Gu Kailai - wife of Chongqing's ex-leader Bo Xilai - on charges of murder.

A court official told reporters Ms Gu had not contested the charges.

The date of the verdict in her case is to be announced later, the official said.

The case appears to have ended the career of her husband, who had been seen as a likely candidate for a top job in the leadership transition due later this year.

Seven members of the nine-strong politburo Standing Committee are due to retire, paving the way for a new generation of leaders.

But former high-flier Mr Bo, a populist and an ambitious politician, has not been seen in public since the investigation into his wife was announced.

According to state media, the four police officers to be tried are accused of covering up Ms Gu's actions and "bending the law to achieve personal benefit".

They include Guo Weiguo, former deputy chief of Chongqing's Public Security Bureau, and Li Yang, former chief of the bureau's criminal section, Xinhua news agency said.

The other two officers were named as Wang Pengfei and Wang Zhi.

Foreign journalists seeking to attend the police officers' trial could not get in.