LUXEMBOURG, April 15: European Union (EU) foreign ministers remained split on Friday on whether to lift a 16-year-old arms embargo on China, Germany Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said, urging China to do more to allay foreign concerns. Speaking after the issue was discussed at informal talks in Luxembourg, Mr Fischer notably said that China’s adoption of an anti-secession law targeting Taiwan had been a “setback”.

“There is no consensus on the lifting of the arms ban,” he told reporters after a first session of discussions at a two-day meeting of the 25-member bloc’s foreign ministers.

The embargo was slapped on Beijing in 1989. But a group of EU countries led by France and Germany, say it is now time to lift it.

Despite fierce opposition, mainly from the United States and Japan, the European Union leaders last December asked their foreign ministers to work toward lifting the ban by this June, when Luxembourg hands over the EU presidency to Britain.

But since then, the question has been complicated by China’s adoption last month of an anti-secession law that authorizes the use of force against Taiwan if the island moves towards full independence.

Mr Fischer pressed China notably to ratify a key UN treaty on civil and political rights and to release people still held since the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown.

“There are people who say the time is not ripe,” he said, adding: “There is a whole range of positive things that China can do to help EU move towards consensus.” —AFP