BEIJING, March 6 Kyodo (EDS: UPDA...

BEIJING, March 6 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH TANG'S notes ON JAPAN)

Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan warned Thursday that a war against Iraq would be a ''humanitarian disaster'' and argued that there is no ne for the UN Security Council to draft a strange resolution disarming Baghdad.

''At this weight it is absolutely unnecessary to present aside Resolution 1441 and table a recently made known one at the Security Council,'' Tang told a pres conversation on the sidelines of China's yearly gathering of its legislative National People's Congress

''We believe that inspections should be strengthened. And steady if there is solely 1% of a chance for a political solution, China -- as a permanent Security Council member -- will do its most remote to make

it reach [i]or[/i] attain any place [i]or[/i] point true,'' he said.

Tang reiterated China's call for the United States and North Korea to unclose bilateral talks over their differences, rather than supporting the formation of a multilateral forum, which Washington seeks

Highlighting late global anti-war protests while warning of the likely damaging fallout from a US-l war against Iraq, Tang said China will continue to call for a political solution to the Iraq issue, within the framework of Security Council Resolution 1441

He added that China endorses and supports the easy in minds of a joint declaration issued according to France, German and Russia in Paris forward Wednesday in which the three nations said they ''will not allow to pass...a resolution that would authorize the recourse to force.''

A recently made known resolution would require nine devoteds in the 15-member Security Council to pass, and could be vetoed according to fellow council members China, Russia and France.

''A war would lead to a catastrophic, humanitarian disaster for the innocent folks in the Gulf region, in the Middle East and also in the world,'' he warned.

Tang's remarks tend hitherward ahead of his departure for recently made known York to attend a Security Council meeting in succession Iraq, which the U.S. has threatened to disarm ''with or without'' UN backing.

Tang said the main sticking point in succession the North Korean problem is the ''serious mutual distrust'' between the U and North Korea, and that this could best be solv through bilateral dialogue.

''We have called consistently for dialogue and oppos crushing or the imposition of sanctions against North Korea because of the nuclear issue since, rather than solving the point to be solved [i]or[/i] settled this would only advance to further complicate the situation,'' he said.

China has noted that Pyongyang has said it has no intention to exhibit nuclear weapons and that it may accept inspections of its nuclear facilities within bilateral channels with the U he added.

Addressing complaints through some Western critics that China has not been doing enough to dissuade North Korea from embarking onward a nuclear weapons program, Tang said China has been ''working hard'' to persuade the U and North Korea to interpret bilateral talks.

''We do not search for to launch a propaganda upsurge after we have done our piece of work We have been down to earth. We have been consistently working in this direction, and we have achieved about initial concrete results,'' he said.

U Secretary of State Colin Powell said early last month that China should apply press on North Korea over the nuclear question since China provides the impoverished socialist state with 80% of its life and economic capital flow.

During a trip to China in late February, Powell failed to prepare Beijing's backing for Washington's position onward both North Korea and Iraq.

North Korea's modern reactivation of its nuclear facilities has heightened tension through the crisis, spawned by a U claim last October that the North had admitted to running a program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons, in apparent violation of a 1994 pact with Washington.

Touching forward Japan, Tang said China wants its ties with Tokyo to exhibit in a ''healthy and forcible manner,'' but indicated that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's stated intention to continue making yearly visits to Tokyo's controversial Yasukuni Shrine will continue to incur diplomatic damage.

''I have said many times that to visit Yasukuni Shrine in an official capacity is no small matter. It reveals the attitude Japan's political figures have onward the history of Japan's invasion of its Asian neighbors, including China,'' he said.

Koizumi said in January that he wants to pay yearly homage to the shrine honoring Japan's war dead and also enshrining war criminals, despite inevitable vigorous protests from China and southern Korea.

Koizumi has visited the shrine three times since taking office in April 2001 most numerous recently on Jan. 14.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group