BEIJING, Feb 23: US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Beijing on Sunday from Tokyo on the second leg of a three-nation Asian tour hoping to secure Chinese support for a new UN resolution on Iraq and backing for US efforts in North Korea.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters on Powell’s plane that the secretary “expects to discuss how the Security Council can stand by its resolutions to disarm Iraq” with Beijing, a veto-wielding permanent member of the Council.

“He will consult with the Chinese on the new UN resolution that we expect to present to the council early this week.”

Mr Powell said in Tokyo, after meeting with Japanese officials including Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and his counterpart Yoriko Kawaguchi, that the time was now for the world to deal with Iraq.

The top US diplomat also hoped to broach with Beijing the nuclear standoff on the Korean peninsula sparked by Pyongyang’s admission in October it was running a nuclear programme based on enriched uranium.

“(Powell) will discuss how to move forward in pursuing a peaceful solution to the problems created by North Korea’s nuclear programmes,” Boucher said.

“He looks forward to considering with the Chinese how to build on their existing efforts with North Korea and on their supportive vote in the (International Atomic Energy Agency) as the issue moves to the Security Council.”

As the top ally of the isolated Stalinist North Korean regime, Beijing has been hostile to US demands for the standoff to evolve into a multilateral issue, not a bilateral problem for Pyongyang and Washington alone.—AFP