The United States and China on Tuesday opened expert-level talks on
combating terrorism, called in the wake of attacks on New York and
the Pentagon which killed nearly 7,000 people.
Teams of top officials from both sides met at the State Department
less than a week after Beijing and Washington signaled that despite
strained relations, they would launch a joint initiative to tackle
terrorism.
The US side at the talks was led by Thomas Maertens, director of
regional affairs in the State Department's counter-terrorism
bureau, an official said.
China's delegation comprised officials from Beijing and members of
its diplomatic corps in Washington, the official said on condition
of anonymity.
No
details were available of the agenda of the talks, and the official
said a decision would be made later as to whether they would
stretch into a second day on Wednesday.
President George W. Bush and China's Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan
agreed to co-operate on counterterrorism measures when Tang was in
Washington last week.
China has condemned the attacks on New York and Washington two
weeks ago and signaled it would not oppose US retaliatory action,
though Beijing has called for any military response to be endorsed
by the United Nations Security Council.
(china Daily
09/26/2001)