BEIJING – China is planning to end imprisonment without trial in what appears to be a key concession to the European Union as the latter considers lifting its ban on selling arms to the Asian giant.

The current system of “re-education through labor” – often used against dissidents and underground religious movements – currently allows police to lock up without trial for up to four years anyone they see as a troublemaker.

A justice department official said yesterday that a new system, to be termed “rehabilitation after illegal behavior,” would include a right of appeal to the courts. The accused would also be entitled to a lawyer.

Re-education through labor is high on the list of abuses cited by the United Nations and other critics of China’s human-rights record. Those who have gone through it, including Christian activists and campaigners against the one-child policy, say it is used to torture and harass government opponents.

The E.U. has been looking for at least a symbolic gesture by Beijing before lifting the arms embargo imposed after the brutal 1989 crackdown.

Nicholas Becquelin, a spokesman for Human Rights in China, a New York-based watchdog, said he welcomed any changes, but urged the E.U. not to forget the reason for the arms embargo.

“They still say the events of 1989 were necessary to ensure stability,” he said. “That means that if stability were threatened again, they would do exactly the same.”

One of the legislation’s drafters, Wang Gong-yi, told a Beijing newspaper that the reform would be tabled next month.

The maximum sentence under the new system would be cut to 18 months from the current three years, plus up to one year’s extension.

One E.U. source said: “If it is to be subject to appeal in the courts, that is something we’d be very keen on. That would effectively abolish [imprisonment without trial].”

If the government is serious about reform, it would be another example of the new leadership’s ambivalence about human rights.

While calling for greater scrutiny of police, it has also cracked down on dissidents and the press recently. Many independent voices and known protesters have been arrested in the run-up to this week’s opening of the annual parliamentary session.