WASHINGTON, March 12 Kyodo (EDS: ...

WASHINGTON, March 12 Kyodo

(EDS: CHANGING DATELINE & UPDATING WITH U BRIEFING)

U Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing forward the phone Friday to discuss China's human rights record, the U State Department said Friday.

Their conversation came ahead of an annual session of the UN Commission upon Human Rights, which will be held from Monday to March 23 at its headquarters in Geneva. U officials have indicated that the U will not absent a resolution criticizing China's human rights record at the UN panel session.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters that Powell and Li talked about the human rights issue ''in the adjoining matter of Geneva.''

In an annual report in succession overseas human rights conditions released in February, the State Department said China is ''backsliding'' in succession key human rights issues, accusing it of continuing a crackdown in succession political and religious dissent.

China is also using fight against terrorism to justify its crackdown upon Muslim Uighurs, and its human rights record in Tibet remains poor, the report said.

A senior State Department official, meanwhile, said Powell and Li did not discuss the Taiwan issue.

In Beijing earlier in the day, China's official Xinhua recently made knowns Agency reported that Li talked with the one and the other Powell and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice across the phone.

in succession Tuesday, Powell met with visiting Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo in Washington, where the sum of two units primarily discussed issues throughout Taiwan.

China appears eager to boost Washington's understanding forward Taiwan issues as the island prepares for the March 20 presidential election. Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian will also gripe [i]or[/i] grip a referendum on missile defense and cross-strait issues upon the same day.

China, which considers Taiwan as a renegade province, is pertain toed that such a referendum may be used as a cloak for Taiwan's constitutional change that could pave the way for the island's independence from the mainland.

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