THE HAGUE, Dec 8: The European Union said on Wednesday it is working towards lifting a 15-year-old arms embargo on China, but rebuffed pressure for a quick end to the ban from China's prime minister, who slammed it as a Cold War relic.

Speaking after a China-EU summit, the European Union's Dutch presidency said it could not speculate how the bloc will end the embargo, slapped on Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown.

The arms issue clouded a summit that also saw the signature of a number of trade and other agreements, in what both sides trumpeted as a strengthening of their "strategic partnership".

"The EU side confirmed its political will to continue to work towards lifting the embargo," said the EU, in a joint China-EU statement after the summit with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao.

The declaration added that the Chinese delegation "welcomed the positive signal and considered it beneficial to the sound development of the comprehensive strategic partnership between China and the EU". But Mr Wen, sitting next to the EU leaders at an end-of-summit press conference, did not hide his displeasure, saying the embargo "does not reflect the partnership between China and the EU".

"The embargo is a result of the Cold War and does not reflect the present situation nor the partnership between China and the EU," Mr Wen told a press conference. A group of EU countries, spearheaded by France, is pushing for it to be lifted, saying the ban is outdated. But critics say Beijing must make more progress on human rights, while the EU is also haggling over how to strengthen a voluntary code of conduct to serve as a backup when the embargo ends.

Without a strengthened set of EU rules, some fear that a lifting of the embargo could open the floodgates to arms sales, which could for example bolster China in its stand off with Taiwan.

"I explained that within the EU there is a willingness to lift the embargo but I also explained that this is related to adjustments of the code of conduct on arms exports," said Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

The Chinese prime minister also sought to reassure the Europeans. "Lifting the embargo would not mean that China would start buying lots of arms from the EU. It would mean getting rid of a political discrimination against China," he said.

Europe's largest aerospace and defence company EADS said on Tuesday it would probably begin talks on potential military deals with Beijing once the EU arms embargo is lifted.

As well as the arms issue, the EU and China also inked a declaration on non-proliferation and arms control, as well as agreeing to launch negotiations on a new economic and trade agreement to replace an outdated 1985 pact.

On the trade front, the EU called on China to rein in its textile exports after international quotas are scrapped next year. A spokeswoman for European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barrios said the EU had urged Mr Wen to exercise "moderation" once the import quota system is lifted on Jan 1.

"We launched an appeal to China... for moderation, to avoid this creating a lot of problems to less developed countries like Bangladesh for example," Mr Barroso's spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail told reporters.

Mr Barroso pointed out that the EU is now China's most important trade partner, while China is the EU's second biggest trade partner. "This more than anything gives you an idea of the strength of our relationship," he said. -AFP