Hundreds of Buddhists from China, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan attended a conference in Beijing's hilly western suburbs Saturday, spending a portion of the time praying for world peace.

Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji sent a letter of congratulations to the gathering, praising the organizers for boosting the friendship between China, ROK and Japan as well as their efforts to promote world peace.

Among those present at the meeting at the Lingguang Monastery were Chinese State Councilor Ismail Amat, Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Wang Zhaoguo and some 400 Buddhists from the Chinese mainland, ROK, Japan, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

This is the first time Buddhists from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan sent representatives to the tripartite Buddhist meeting.

During the conference, Buddhists from the three countries held a grand assembly praying for world peace in the monastery, one symposium on the evils of cults and another on environmental protection, and an exhibition of photographs taken by Buddhists from the three countries.

The prayer meeting, hosted by Monk Sheng Hui, vice-president of the Buddhist Association of China, focused on world peace and the friendship between China, ROK and Japan.

At the start of the conference, participants observed a moment of silence for the death of Zhao Puchu, late president of the Buddhist Association of China, who had initiated the tripartite conference in 1995.

On Friday afternoon, Chinese Vice-Premier Qian Qichen and Vice-chairman of the National Committee of CPPCC Wang Zhaoguo met with representatives of the Buddhist groups.

Buddhism was introduced to China around the 1st century and later spread to Korea and Japan. China has so far more than 13,000 Buddhism monasteries, the ROK, 5,000 and Japan 80,000.

(Xinhua News Agency October 28, 2001)