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The Iraq issue should be resolved within the framework of the United Nations through political and diplomatic means, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said in Beijing Tuesday.
At the ministry's regular press conference, Zhang said that China attached great importance to the UN's leading role on this issue.
As long as there was the slightest hope of settling the issue peacefully, the utmost efforts should be made, she said.
China was aware that Germany, France and Russia had issued a joint statement calling for the UN to further enhance its work on weapons inspection, she noted.
Zhang said China supported any effort that would facilitate a peaceful settlement.
At present, she added, some nations still doubt about having weapons of mass destruction destroyed in Iraq. The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said some problem areas remained to be further inspected.
China held that Iraq should cooperate with the United Nations actively and further explain and clarify the relevant problems, Zhang said.
Chief UN arms inspectors Hans Blix, head of UNMOVIC and Mohamed ElBaradei, chief of the IAEA, have again ended their visit to Iraq and said to submit a second report on their weapons inspections to the United Nations Security Council on Feb. 14.
They said at the end of their latest visit that they had made progress during the visit and the Iraqi side also said it would cooperate further still with the United Nations.
(Xinhua News Agency February 12, 2003)
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