December 4, 2002	Wednesday	Ramazan 28,1423

BEIJING, Dec 3: Russian President Vladimir Putin ended a visit to China on Tuesday with a thinly-veiled warning over US policy on Iraq, saying no country should take unilateral military action to resolve international disputes.

Before leaving for New Delhi after two days of talks in which he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with his Chinese counterpart on a host of global issues, Putin addressed students at the elite Beijing University.

Following on from his summit with President Jiang Zemin on Monday in which the two leaders urged a diplomatic solution to the Iraq crisis, Putin fired another shot across the bows of the United States.

“Disregard of international agreements and accords is absolutely inadmissible, and so is the practice of double standards and the attempt to solve problems by the unilateral use of force,” said Putin.

US President George Bush on Monday called Iraq’s response to UN weapons inspections so far “not encouraging” and warned that Baghdad must account for its weapons by a Sunday deadline to avert war.

China and Russia, traditional allies of Baghdad and two of the UN Security Council’s veto-wielding permanent members, oppose unilateral American or joint US-British military action against Iraq.

“The Iraqi question can only be resolved through political-diplomatic means, as well as in firm keeping to UN Security Council resolutions,” said a joint declartio.

Putin’s two-day visit to China was focused on reaffirming the two powers’ close partnership on the international stage.—AFP