Chinese expected to rally behind US as Powell arrives in Beijing

US Secretary of State Colin Powell arrived in Beijing on Sunday to ask asceptical Chinese leadership to abstain from vetoing a second Iraqresolution and to urge them to put pressure on ally North Korea.

Powell, on his first Asian tour since the Korean crisis blew up, islikely to find the President Jiang Zemin and other leaders he will see onMonday being acquiescent on Iraq but less transigent on North Korea.

In public China is saying the UN inspectors should be given more timeand Jiang Zemin has been phoning Moscow and Paris to coordinate responseswith the other permanent members of the UN Security Council.

However, most diplomats expect that President Jiang is reluctant tojeopardise his recent initiatives to strengthen ties with Washington with adirect confrontation and will therefore abstain during a new vote.

Before the 1991 Gulf War, China abstained from almost everyIraq-related resolution in the U.N. Security Council, and last November,China went along with the rest of the Security Council and voted in favourof Resolution 1441.

'They just want to sit on the fence as long as possible,' said aWestern diplomat. China is also keen to win business in Iraq if sanctionsare lifted or a new government embarks on a massive economic reconstructionprogram.

China has a long standing policy not to take the lead inany international crisis despite becoming more involved in UN peace-keepingmissions, its priority remains enlarging its influence in Washington overissues like bilateral trade, Taiwan and Tibet.

China's economic expansion now depends on oil imports and its sharesWestern interests in low oil prices and policies to curb Islamicfundamentalism and terrorism.

China became a net oil importer in 1993 and its imports rose by 15percent last year forcing its trade balance into an overall deficit inrecent months. To avoid becoming over-reliant on Gulf oil it is pushingahead with long term plans to contract oil and gas from Russia, Indonesia,Central Asia and Australia.

On his visit Powell will be also be trying to persuade China to backits bid to tackle Pyongyang through "multilateral talks" involvingChina, Japan, South Korea, Russia and perhaps other countries.

President Jiang has repeatedly voiced support for North Korea'sdemand that the United States' engage Pyongyang in bilateral negotiationsleading to a nonaggression treaty.

Although China is uncomfortable with the North's decision toaggressively re-restart its nuclear programme, North Korean ForeignMinister Paek Nam-sun received fresh assurances of Beijing's support whenhe passed through Beijing a day before Powell arrived.

"The crux of the issue now is to ensure the non-nuclearization of theKorean Peninsula and the DPRK's concern over its security should also betaken into consideration," said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman ZhangQiyue after his visit. "We hope related parties will keep on with theirefforts to bring about conditions for dialogue and prevent the escalationof tension," she said.

Washington is drawing plans to put pressure on North Korea to give upits nuclear programme by placing it under a trade embargo but China, one ofthe North's main trading partners, could block this.

Powell, who has an optimistic view of China's influence on its difficultneighbour, will argue that if North Korea becomes a nuclear power, Japanand South Korea will arm themselves and will join the proposed missiledefence shield, both developments which China is against.

At the same time, Powell has announced that the United States will announce shortly a new food donation to North Korea.

He said the Bush administration might have made a food donation earlierbut was unable to do so because Congress had not approved legislation untilrecently providing money for food assistance.

"We don't use food as a political weapon," Powell told reporters,reaffirming long-standing U.S policy.

There have been no U.S. food deliveries to North Korea since December.The United States donated more than 150,000 tons of food to North Korealast year, more than any other country.

"You go through all the politics and there are kids out there that arestill starving,'' Powell said.

On Tuesday Powell will be in Seoul for the inauguration of newlyelected President Roh Roh Moo-hyun who is also against putting too muchpressure on the North.

Powell said that the United States remained open to giving thesecretive communist state an array of other aid but only after it abandonsits suspected nuclear weapons ambitions.

"You can't eat plutonium. You can't eat enriched uranium," Powell said.