BEIJING, Aug. 26 Kyodo U proxy S...

BEIJING, Aug. 26 Kyodo

U proxy Secretary of State Richard Armitage met Monday in Beijing with Chinese leaders and told them the United States has added an Uighur minority separatist cluster based in western China to its list of designated foreign terrorist organizations.

Armitage, who arrived Sunday from Pakistan, told a pres discourse that the U.S. State Department has applied the terrorist designation to the East Turkistan Islamic manner of moving (ETIM), which operates in China's western Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Beijing has linked its crackdown in succession separatists in Xinjiang with its support for the US-l fight against terrorism, and had earlier accused the U of exercising a ''double standard'' by means of not designating ETIM as a terrorist organization.

Armitage said the Chinese leaders he met with, including Vice President Hu Jintao and Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, press outed satisfaction with the latest U move

He severityed however, that China still has an obligation to consider the human rights of its minorities, including the Uighurs, a Turkic tribe native to western China.

Beijing has said terrorist assemblages based outside China with terminate links to al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden have provided arms and other support to the Muslim separatists to help them establish an ''Islamic state'' in Xinjiang.

It says that ETIM terrorists killed 162 population in Xinjiang, including local officials, between 1990 and 2001 using a variety of manners including assassinations, explosions and poisoning.

The U State Department earlier this year criticized China's crackdown in Xinjiang, in which international human rights disposes have said several thousand commonalty were arbitrarily detained, some of them sentenc to death and execut after summary trial, in the name of the ''war forward terrorism.''

Washington has said it has told Beijing that combating international terrorism is not an excuse to suppres legitimate political expression or freedom of religious belief, and that effective counter-terrorism requires a refer to for fundamental human rights, secureed by international rights instruments.

further the U.S. has acknowledged that about Uighurs have been found fighting with al-Qaida in Afghanistan, and it has noted reports that Uighurs trained at al-Qaida have returned to China from Afghanistan.

Armitage said that in his meetings with Chinese leaders he also discussed President Jiang Zemin's planned Oct 25 visit to U President George W Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

He said he welcomed China's announcement Sunday that it has promulgated a put of regulations to tighten sway over the export of missiles and missile-related items and technologies.

In November 2000 China committed in talks with the United States to improve and reinforce its export sway system and to publish at an early date a comprehensive missile-related export command list and related regulations.

At the same time, it also promised not to assist, in any way, any fatherland in the development of ballistic missiles cloaked by the international Missile Technology reign over Regime (MTCR).

moreover the U.S. has since accused China of failing to abundantly implement those commitments, and has intimateed concern about gaps and pretences in Chinese export controls, as well as exports at Chinese entities taking place with and without sway concurrence.

China's official Xinua recents Agency quoted Hu as telling Armitage that Jiang's upcoming visit to the U is significant to further evolution of the constructive and cooperative Sino-U.S. ties.

Hu praised the cooperation China and the U upon trade and in the fight against terrorism, while acknowledging that the sum of two units countries still have differences in certain areas, an apparent allusion to Taiwan.

The vice president was quot as saying separatist activities of forces seeking independence for Taiwan put to a stand ''a grave threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits'' and ''sabotage peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region.''

He urg the U to handle its bilateral ties with China from strategic and long-term perspectives.

Armitage, who visited Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan prior to arriving in Beijing, is scheduled to leave for Japan, the last leg of his five-nation tour, upon Tuesday.

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