May 28, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-us-Sani 29, 1427

SHANGHAI, May 27: China is prepared to allow stalled talks over the price of iron ore between its mills and foreign miners to drag on into next month, a Chinese official said Friday.

Talks are ongoing, and we don’t mind if they continue into the month of June, said Dong Zhihong, an official with the China Iron and Steel Association, told AFP.

There is no need to wrap-up talks this month.

China’s rejection of a significant rise in contracting pricing of iron ore has caused the prolonged negotiations to extend well past the traditional April 1 deadline.

China’s decision to play hardball, however, appeared to have backfired after steel mills elsewhere around the world agreed over the past two weeks to rises of 19 per cent.

“They (China) can either take or leave it,” Bonnie Liu, a Shanghai-based analyst with Macquarie Securities.

“They (miners) have already reached agreements with the Koreans and Japanese so how could they lower the price for the Chinese. It’s impossible.”