China has appealed to all members of the Conference on Disarmament to work to prevent an arms race in outer space. 

"Recent developments concerning outer space are worrisome and require urgent efforts to prevent an arms race in outer space," Hu Xiaodi, ambassador on disarmament affairs for China, told a session of the Conference on Disarmament, the international disarmament body, in Geneva Thursday.

Chinese and Russian delegations yesterday moved to clarify their position, set out in a joint working paper tabled in 2002.

China and Russia stand for the negotiation of an international law prohibiting the deployment of weapons in outer space, the paper said.

The clarification was made in response to other delegations' suggestions for the working paper.

"We hope that this will help people pay more attention and give more thought to the issue of preventing an arms race in outer space and serve as food for thought for our negotiation of a relevant future legal instrument in the Conference on Disarmament," the Chinese ambassador told the conference.

(China Daily June 10, 2005)