Chinese President Jiang Zemin and Egyptian President Muhammed Hosni Mubarak Wednesday night talked over phone as requested by the latter.

The two presidents exchanged views on combating terrorism and the Middle East peace process.

Mubarak elaborated Egypt's position and views on combating terrorism and the Middle East peace process.

He stressed that the international community should make various joint efforts to fight terrorism, and he held that the international community should urge Israel and Palestine to come back to the negotiation table and move forward the Middle East peace process.

Jiang reiterated the principled stance of China on combating terrorism.

He pointed out that as for the issues on combating terrorism and safeguarding international peace, both China and Egypt hold that international cooperation should be strengthened and the role of the United Nations should be put into full play. China and Egypt are against linking up terrorism with religion and ethnic problems.

Jiang said: We appreciate the active role played by Arabic countries, especially by Egypt, in fighting terrorism and safeguarding regional peace and stability.

As for the Middle East peace process, Jiang said that the Middle East issue is very important and it is directly related to world and regional peace and stability.

He said China always supports the legitimate right of the Palestinian people and the just struggle of the peoples of Arabic countries.

He said: We always hold that peaceful negotiation is the only correct choice for the settlement of the Middle East issue.

Jiang said that under the current situation, it is especially important for the international community to adopt a more active attitude to push the Middle East peace process forward, and China supports Egypt to play a positive role in the Middle East region.

Latest Developments Related to Terror Attacks on US

The following is major latest developments related to the September 11 terror attacks in the United States.

-- U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Tuesday that the code name of the U.S. military buildup in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks was changed to "Operation Enduring Freedom" from "Operation Infinite Justice."

-- Three men on Tuesday were arrested in the central English city of Leicester on terrorist charges. Reports here quoted a police spokeswoman as saying that the men, aged 29, 35 and in his mid-20s respectively, were being held for questioning and their homes were being searched for further evidence.

-- The U.S. Defense Department on Tuesday called an additional 1,940 members of the Reserve troops and National Guard to assist active troops for fighting against terrorists. They are in addition to more than 10,303 Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard members already called up since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The Pentagon has said it expects to call up as many as 35,500 reservists to help with recovery efforts in New York and Washington and to bolster U.S. air defenses.

-- A number of people, most of whom are followers of Osama bin Laden, were reported to have entered Batam Island, Indonesia, after they earlier made a series of meetings with counterparts from some Asian countries. But there has been no official statement from the authorities on the report, according to the Antara News Agency Wednesday.

-- U.S. President George W. Bush has postponed his scheduled visit to three Asian countries including China, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

-- The American Red Cross will grant up to 30,000 dollars to each family of those who died or were missing in the September 11 terrorist attacks, the organization announced Tuesday. The first tax-free payments were already sent to families Friday to help them with mortgage or rent payments and funeral costs.

-- Thousands of angry Afghans on Wednesday set fire to the U.S. embassy building in Kabul, capital of Afghanistan, according to a report by the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP).

-- The Lebanese authority is planning to freeze bank accounts suspected of being linked to terrorism, Oriental radio reported on Wednesday. Riad Salameh, governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, was quoted as saying "The parliament has passed in April 2001 a law to fight against money laundering and will block accounts suspected of being linked to terrorism."

-- The Pakistani-Afghan border remains closed, but it is still open to U.N. agencies with wheat supplies, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

-- Three Japanese groups have separately protested expected U.S. armed retaliation for the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States and the Japanese government's move to send the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) to support such military strikes, Kyodo News reported.

(China Daily 09/27/2001)