China supports the government of Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica and continued political stability in the country, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said Saturday during a visit.

"We support Yugoslavia and its political stability at this moment of great change," Tang told a news conference.

"We respect the choice of the Yugoslav people for the development of their country and want its political and economic stability, as well as the improvement of its position in the international community," he added.

Tang arrived in Belgrade Saturday for a two-day visit, the first leg of a European tour which will also take him to Albania, Hungary and Poland.

Tang, invited by his Yugoslav counterpart Goran Svilanovic, is the first Chinese official to visit Belgrade since the democratic changes and ouster of former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic in early October.

The Chinese minister met on Saturday with Kostunica and Svilanovic, and was expected to meet later in the evening with federal Prime Minister Zoran Zizic.

In his meeting with Kostunica, Tang voiced Beijing's support for the resolution of the Kosovo situation "based on UN Security Council Resolution 1244," which calls for Kosovo's substantial autonomy within Yugoslavia, the Tanjug news agency reported.

Tang told journalists he had given Kostunica an invitation from Chinese President Jiang Zemin, asking the Yugoslav leader to visit China in 2001.

Beijing was considered a close ally of Belgrade during the Milosevic era and China strongly opposed last year's NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia over Kosovo.

Svilanovic thanked China for its support "during the bombings and Yugoslavia's isolation," as well as its backing of Yugoslavia's territorial integrity.

Bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which NATO said was an accident, provoked a deep crisis between Beijing and the major Western powers in 1999.

However, Beijing has apparently been willing to distance itself from Milosevic since the fall of his regime, analysts said.

Milosevic's son Marko was denied entry to the Chinese territory on his arrival in Beijing airport on October 9, only days after the power-switch in Belgrade.

(China Daily 12/03/2000)