In a phone call to French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin on the Iraq issue, Tang said that China always supports a political settlement of the Iraq weapons inspection dispute within the framework of the United Nations. He hoped that consensus will be reached at the consultations of the United Nations Security Council as early as possible in order that UN weapons inspectors can return to Iraq to resume their work of inspection smoothly and effectively.

Tang is in Los Cabos, a seaside resort in northern Mexico, to attend the two-day ministerial conference of the 10th annual Economic Leaders Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum that started Wednesday.

On Monday, US officials distributed a new draft resolution to the permanent members of the UN Security Council. The Bush administration believes its proposal will strengthen the mandate of UN weapons inspectors who will endeavor to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and also to increase pressure on Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

On Tuesday, Russia and France expressed dissatisfaction with the latest US proposal, signifying that the latest US effort intended to win international support for the possible use of force against Iraq has hit yet another stumbling block.

"The American draft resolution, which was presented yesterday, does not, for the moment, meet the criteria which the Russian side had previously outlined and stands by now," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told reporters after he met in Moscow with Hans Blix, the chief UN weapons inspector.

Ivanov's counterpart, French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, said of the US proposal: "Much work remains to be done."

(People?s Daily October 24, 2002)