March 05, 2007	Monday	Safar 15, 1428

BEIJING, March 4: China told the United States on Sunday not to send the wrong signals to “Taiwan separatist forces,” a day after urging Washington to cancel a planned missile sale to the island territory.

“The activities of Taiwan separatists pose a major threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese State Councillor Tang Jiaxuan as telling US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.

“We hope the US side will implement its commitments, not send any mistaken signals to 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces and work together (with China) to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and Sino-US relations.” Negroponte was in Beijing only days after the United States agreed to a plan to sell Taiwan 450 air and ground missiles, widely viewed as a counter-measure to an ongoing Chinese missile build-up on its southwest coast facing the island.

“I stressed that any weapons sale that we might make to Taiwan would be for strictly defensive purposes and consistent with our one-China policy,” Negroponte told reporters on Sunday.

The “one-China policy” refers to Beijing's insistence that there is only one China and that Taiwan belongs to that entity.

“We had good frank discussions. We discussed bilateral and strategic issues including North Korea, regional security, the war on terrorism and trade,” Negroponte said.

A working group on denuclearisation, agreed to in a breakthrough in six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programme last month, would begin work within days, he said.

The US envoy, who met earlier on Sunday with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, said he had discussed Iran, but gave no further details.

“The United States and China have wide common interests and many common concerns both bilaterally and in international affairs,” Xinhua quoted Negroponte as saying.

“The United States side hopes to continue with China contacts and exchanges at all levels and in every area in order to strengthen our constructive relations.” The planned weapons purchase by democratic Taiwan has upset the leaders of China's Communist Party, which views the island as a renegade province to be reunited with the motherland.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo told Negroponte on Saturday that China “resolutely opposes” US weapons sales to Taiwan, according to a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman.

Ties have recently cooled somewhat after US Vice President Dick Cheney's comments, on a trip to Australia, that China's military growth and recent test of a satellite-killer missile did not chime with its stated peaceful aims.

Negroponte's visit to Beijing is the second leg of a trip that has already taken him to Japan and will include a stop in South Korea.–—AFP