February 26, 2003	Wednesday	Zul Hijjah 24, 1423

BEIJING: On the second leg of his sensitive Asia mission, the United States’ top diplomat, Secretary of State Colin Powell, found Chinese leaders more acquiescent on Iraq but less wavering on their long-time Communist ally and neighbour, North Korea.

During this talks with Chinese leaders on Monday, Powell tried to feel Beijing’s pulse on the impending war with Iraq and Pyongyang’s escalating nuclear crisis, just weeks before China formally completes a major generational change in leadership.

Regional concerns that Washington could mishandle the North Korea crisis at a time when the Bush administration is focused on Iraq’s disarmament have played to provide Powell one of his most delicate missions so far in gathering support for planned US military action in the Middle East.

In Tokyo on Sunday, the first stop of his first Asian tour since the North Korean crisis blew up in late 2002, Powell started addressing some of these concerns.

He said that the United States would not use food as a “political weapon” against North Korea, whose people depend on foreign aid to avoid starvation. The United States would announce shortly a new food donation to the North, he added.

Powell’s mission in Beijing continued a long but quiet US effort to nudge Beijing towards taking stronger measures to curb North Korea’s nuclear programme.

Washington has been trying to persuade China to back its bid to tackle Pyongyang through “multilateral talks” involving China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and perhaps other countries.

But President Jiang Zemin, with whom Powell met on Monday, has repeatedly voiced support for North Korea’s demand that the United States engage Pyongyang in bilateral negotiations toward a non-aggression treaty.

“The United States appreciates China’s consistent message to the North Koreans that China joins the rest of the world community in expecting Pyongyang to comply with its obligations and its own promises with respect to nuclear weapons,” Powell told the media after meeting top Chinese officials.

But he insisted that multilateral approach was what Washington continued to pursue. “The United States and China share the goal of a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to this problem,” Powell said. “It cannot simply be treated however as a bilateral matter between the United States and North Korea.”

Washington has pointed out that if North Korea becomes a nuclear power, Japan and South Korea would arm themselves and would join the proposed missile defence shield —- developments that China is itself staunchly against.

Although China is uncomfortable with the North’s decision to aggressively re-start its nuclear programme, North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sum received fresh assurances of Beijing’s support when he passed through Beijing a day before Powell arrived.

“The crux of the issue now is to ensure the non-nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the DPRK’s (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) concern over its security should also be taken into consideration,” said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue after Paek’s visit.

Washington is drawing up plans to put pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear programme by placing it under a trade embargo, but China, one of the North’s main trade partners, could block this.

But Powell, who has an optimistic view of China’s influence on its difficult neighbour, said Beijing is willing to do what it can to persuade North Korea to give up its suspected nuclear weapons programme but prefers to play its role quietly.

“I think they are anxious to play as helpful role as they can,” Powell said on Monday after meeting with Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan and Communist Party chief Hu Jintao.

Hu replaced Jiang as head of China’s Communist party in November, and is expected to assume the presidency when Jiang retires from that post during the annual session of China’s Parliament in March.

Hu’s ascent is unlikely to change the course of China’s foreign affairs, and observers say he would be reluctant to jeopardize Beijing and Washington rapprochement after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11.

Powell said he had also discussed Iraq with Chinese leaders, but clearly tried to project a picture of the United States taking stock first and mainly of the region’s concerns with the North Korean nuclear crisis.

He said it would have been inappropriate of him to urge Beijing to support, or not veto, a new UN Security Council resolution that could pave the way for war, because it has not yet been tabled and any vote is likely to be two weeks away.

In public, China is saying that the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq should be given more time. Jiang has been holding telephone conversations with leaders in Moscow and Paris to coordinate responses with other permanent members of the UN Security Council.

However, most diplomats expect that Beijing’s priority remains enlarging its influence in Washington over issues like bilateral trade, Taiwan and Tibet. They say that China will therefore avoid direct confrontation with the United States and abstain in any new vote for a second resolution on Iraq.

Before the 1991 Gulf War, China abstained from almost every Iraq-related resolution in the Security Council. But in November, it went along with the rest of the Security Council and voted in favour of Resolution 1441 that called on Iraq to disarm.—Dawn/The InterPress News Service.