China is deeply concerned and worried about the deteriorating situation in Israel and Palestine which has caused many casualties, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a regular press conference in Beijing Thursday.  

Zhang made the remark when asked to comment on the latest suicide bombing in central Jerusalem on Thursday and the Israeli army's invading of a residential area in south Gaza Strip on Wednesday.

"All the past facts have proved over and over that those violence-against-violence activities only serve to further exacerbate the situation but do no help to solve the question," the spokeswoman said.

"China opposes any kind of activity which will harm the efforts, from Israel and Palestine as well, towards a peaceful solution," Zhang said, adding that China asks Israel and Palestine to keep restraint and return to the correct track of peaceful talks.

In another development, the spokeswoman said the European Union's (EU) arms embargo on China should be lifted.

Zhang said the arms embargo was a product of the Cold War era, which hampered cooperation between China and EU members.

"We have noticed that many EU members have adopted positive attitudes towards the lifting of the arms embargo," she said, saying China appreciated the efforts of certain EU members, including France and Germany.

She expressed the hope that the arms embargo would be lifted as soon as possible.

The EU is considering lifting the ban on arms sales to China, the foreign ministers' meeting of EU members and would-be members revealed Monday. The EU Council had opened discussion on the issue and ministers have invited the Permanent Representatives Committee and the Standing Political and Security Committee to examine the issue.

Also at yesterday's briefing, the spokeswoman said China will support France as the site of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project.

After studying the two proposed sites in France and Japan for the construction of an experimental nuclear fusion reactor, China had decided to support France, Zhang said.

France had been competing with Japan as the site of the multi-billion dollar project, but China hoped the issue could be settled according to consultations among all parties, she said.

The project is the world's largest-yet nuclear fusion power plant with technology touted as a solution to global energy problems. Once completed in 2050, the ITER will generate clean, safe and inexhaustible electricity.

The ITER participants -- the European Union, the United States, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Canada and China -- are divided into two groups. If successful, the ITER is expected to be the world's first commercially viable fusion reactor and could herald a global energy revolution.

Also according to Zhang, claims that China is the source of the Southeast Asian bird flu outbreak are incorrect, unfounded, unscientific and therefore irresponsible.

Avian influenza was a disease which humans had known about for 100 years, Zhang said. The sources and infection channels of the disease followed epidemiological patterns and required scientific study to understand.

To date, there had been absolutely no evidence that China was the source of the bird flu, she acknowledged, and China hoped all countries would take a scientific attitude towards the epidemic.

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier that it was too early to target any country as the source of the disease, Zhang noted.

The Chinese government regarded the disease as a significant public health threat and public health had to be made a priority, she said. No Chinese had been inflected by the disease so far.

Zhang went on to say that the Chinese government had also taken a range of resolute legal and scientific measures to prevent and check its spread.

The government took comprehensive control measures from the very beginning, initiating a rigid reporting system as early as Jan. 19.

The Ministry of Agriculture and other relevant departments had informed all ports to strictly examine poultry from infected regions, and poultry from eight Asian nations had been banned.

Moreover, the government organized the production and storage of vaccines, dispatched at least nine groups to supervise and direct the prevention work, further improved laws and regulations to ensure the campaign was conducted legally, and beefed up cooperation with neighboring countries and international organizations and kept close contact with WHO and other relevant international bodies.

Only through international cooperation could epidemics like bird flu be eradicated, the spokeswoman said.

Turning to the Korean nuclear issue, the spokeswoman said the timetable for a second round of six-party talks has still not been fixed.

All parties had been preparing for an early opening of the second round of six-party talks, and sound progress had been achieved, but the specific time for the talks was still undecided, she said.

In August 2003, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the United States, the Republic of Korea, Russia and Japan held the first round of six-party talks in Beijing.

Zhang also announced visiting US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Lee Armitage will hold talks with Chinese officials at vice-ministerial level.

She said Armitage is visiting China from Jan. 29 to 31.

Chinese vice foreign ministers Dai Bingguo and Zhou Wenzhong will meet with him and exchange views on bilateral relations and issues of common concern, Zhang said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 30, 2004)