Du Daozheng, once the head of China's state publishing watchdog, said he and three former top officials transcribed recordings made by Zhao that were later turned into the recently published English-language "Prisoner of the State".

Zhao was ousted as the head of the ruling Communist Party after refusing to authorise the use of the military to end six weeks of unprecedented pro-democracy rallies in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in the spring of 1989.

The book recounts his opposition to hardliners such as then premier Li Peng, and his failed efforts to persuade leader Deng Xiaoping not to use force to quell the protests. Hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed.

Du said three ex-officials -- Xiao Hongda, former vice head of the party's disciplinary commission; Yao Xihua, former chief editor of the Guangming Daily; and Du Xingyuan, a former cabinet secretary -- helped him with Zhao's tapes.

"After the recordings were made, Xiao Hongda and myself locked ourselves in a room and listened," Du said in the statement made public by Bao Pu, the publisher of the Chinese version of the book and the son of a former top Zhao aide.

"We felt that the recordings were extremely important, logical and accurate. All we needed to do was to transcribe them and we would have a book."

Du called the book "incomparable" to anything previously written about China's early years of economic reform and the period leading up to the Tiananmen crackdown.

His statement will be the preface to the Chinese-language version of "Prisoner of the State" due to be released late this month in Hong Kong to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the protests, Bao told AFP.

"Du's statement came too late as the English version had already been printed and shipped," Bao said.

"But it is too important to be left out so it will be the preface of the Chinese version."

The book documents how Zhao tried to use the protests to advance democratic political reform in China, while also building a more transparent and less corrupt government.

Zhao secretly made the recordings while under house arrest in Beijing from 1989 until his death in 2005.

"In the last four years, the ashes of Zhao Ziyang have not found peace ... and he has still not received a word of rehabilitation while the three characters Zhao Zi Yang continued to be banned in the mainland media," Du wrote.

"Historically speaking, this is totally unreasonable, but, fortunately, history in the end will be written by the people."

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