China will set up Asia's largest peace-keeping civil police training center in Langfang, a small city near Beijing, a senior Chinese police officer announced in Langfang on Monday.

The announcement was made by Gao Zaicun, Vice-President of the Academy of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force (ACPAPF), in a briefing to Jean-Marie Guehenno, UN Under-Secretary-General in charge of peace-keeping operations, here on a visit to the training center.

Gao said the center will be built in the ACPAPF and the Chinese government has approved the infrastructure construction layout.

The training center will cover an area of 13.56 hectares with floor space of 17,000 square meters. With a total investment of 160 million yuan (about 19.35 million US dollars), the center is expected to be completed by the end of next year.

Capable of training 250 police officers at one go, the center will become the biggest of its kind in Asia, Gao said.

China first approved the sending of civil police officers to participate in UN peace-keeping activities in 1998, and in August 2000, the "China Peace-keeping Civil Police Training Center" was officially established in the ACPAPF.

Focusing on English language, driving and shooting skills, the center has already trained 251 police officers, of whom 159 passed the selection examination organized by the United Nations.

According to a senior official in charge of foreign affairs at the Ministry of Public Security, there are 69 Chinese police officers taking part in UN peace-keeping operations in east Timor, and another 15 in Bosnia and Herzegovina, some of whom hold high-ranking positions such as divisional head and district head.

Guehenno said China has played a "critical" role in UN peace-keeping operations, and proposed that the peace-keeping police should learn more about legal systems and border administration on top of the three basic skills of language, driving and shooting.

Guehenno also visited the site for the new training center.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2002)