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China calls for early peace conference on Syria

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China on Monday called on all parties concerned to make greater efforts to bring about an international peace conference on Syria at an early date.

A political solution is "the only viable way out of Syria's problems," said Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, when briefing the press on the program of work of the UN Security Council for this month.

"First and foremost it is highly important to persuade the relevant parties to sit down at the negotiation table for the Geneva II conference to be held as early as possible," said the envoy, whose country assumed the rotating council presidency for November on Friday.

Liu made the remarks as UN-Arab League joint special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is going to meet a number of diplomats in Geneva on Tuesday to push for the peace conference on Syria, known as Geneva II.

"We are concerned that things are not progressing as smoothly as we wish, and we would hope that efforts will be made with greater determination at the national, regional and international levels so that the relevant sides are persuaded to go to the negotiation table without pre-conditions and to really sit down and work out the political future of the country through negotiations and through dialogue," he said.

An early peace conference would be in the fundamental interest of the Syrian people and the region and "give us the best way forward," Liu added.

The goal of Geneva II would be to achieve a political solution to the conflict through a comprehensive agreement between the Syrian government and the opposition for the full implementation of the Geneva communique, adopted after the first international meeting on the issue on June 30, 2012.

The communique lays out key steps in a process to end the violence, which has been going on for more than 30 months. Among others, it calls for the establishment of a transitional governing body, with full executive powers and made up by members of the present government and the opposition and other groups, as part of agreed principles and guidelines for a Syrian-led political transition.

"China certainly will continue to work with the various sides so that they will move forward with this political process," Liu said.

"We highly commend the very important role played by (UN) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and also his joint special representative Brahimi. We do urge the international community ... to support the secretary-general and Mr. Brahimi's efforts," he added.

The United Nations is leading an international endeavor to seek a political solution to the Syrian crisis, which has reportedly left more than 100,000 people dead since its outbreak in March 2011. The world body has made it clear that the political solution should be a result of the Syrian-led political process.