Former People's Liberation Army (PLA) commander Xu Caihou admitted he accepted large amounts of bribes in exchange for favors and promotions, state media announced.

Gen. Xu's admission propelled China's deep-rooted graft scandal in the army to trial on Tuesday. State-run news agency Xinhua announced the confession, and added that military prosecutors have now finished their investigation into Xu's case and are mulling putting the retired general on trial.

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Xinhua said the scenario of Xu on trial is very likely since investigators concluded that the former PLA commander had accepted huge amounts of bribes from people seeking favors from him.

"The probe by the military prosecutors ascertained that Xu Caihou took advantage of his position to assist the promotion of other people..." the Reuters quoted Xinhua as saying.

The report, however, did not disclose further details on the amount of the bribes or the identities of those involved in the scandal.

The Communist Party secretly began investigating Xu's corruption scandal in March. They only announced the probe in late June, the report detailed.

Gen. Xu is one of the biggest "tigers" in China that President Xi Jinping's anti-graft campaign has ensnared. He used to serve as the Central Military Commission's vice chairman and was also one of the 25 members of the elite party council Politburo before he resigned in 2012.

After the probe, Xu's title was stripped off and he was booted from the army. The party also formally expelled him from their circle, the report stated.

President Xi has vowed to weed out corrupt military officials from the country and has repeatedly emphasized this to be one of his priorities. He launched the anti-graft measures amid his efforts to modernize governance in China.

In the 1990s, Beijing started prohibiting the PLA from getting involved in business as part of the corruption crackdown. However, the army was able to engage in commercial transactions in recent years because of the country's weak check and balance system, according to military analysts.

Tagspolitics, Xu Caihou