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Solana: EU still wants to lift China arms ban
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-09-06 13:01

SHANGHAI -- The European Union is still committed to lifting its arms embargo on China, but this does not mean the bloc is getting set to increase weapons sales to the country, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Tuesday.

The 25-nation bloc had originally planned to remove the ban, imposed in 1989 after the suppression of China's pro-democracy movement, by June. But fierce U.S. and Japanese pressure, and Chinese threats of force against Taiwan, prompted a rethink.

"We think that this embargo is part of history," Solana told reporters in China's financial hub, Shanghai. "The embargo is not a military decision. It's a political decision."

"Trade in weapons will not change at all," he added. "In the European Union we have a code of conduct for the export of weapons, which is not going to change."

EU leaders made clear last December that they did not intend to increase the quantity nor quality of arms sold to China as a result of lifting the embargo.

But Britain, which took over the EU presidency for six months on July 1, has said it is not ready to take the issue forward for now, and the executive European Commission has said China needs to move on human rights before there can be any change.

Activists criticise Beijing over the holding of political prisoners, media censorship, Tibet and its failure to ratify a U.N. convention on civic and political rights.

Solana also said the EU expects China to cooperate in helping rein in Iran's nuclear ambitions.

U.S. and EU officials have said they will push for Iran's nuclear case to be sent to the Security Council -- which has the power to impose sanctions -- if Tehran does not halt all nuclear fuel work and resume negotiations with the EU.

China and Russia oppose reporting Iran to the U.N..

"The leaders of China have relations with Iran, and they have spoken to them of the need to resume negotiations with the European Union," he said.

Iran, which denies wanting nuclear weapons, as suspected by Washington and the European Union, angered the EU by resuming uranium processing work at a plant in Isfahan. The move led EU officials to threaten the Security Council referral.

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