China welcomes and supports the upcoming talks between Iraq and the United Nations, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said in Beijing Tuesday.
Kong made the remarks at a regular press conference when asked to comment on the dialogue between Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri Ahmed and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan due to be held in New York on March 7.
China has always held that the Iraq issue should be properly solved through political and diplomatic channels on the basis of relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council, said Kong who described the upcoming dialogue as a positive move.
"We hope that the dialogue will bear fruit so as to create good conditions for the proper and comprehensive solution of the Iraq issue," he said.
(Xinhua News Agency March 6, 2002)