BRUSSELS - The European Union is still working towards ending an arms embargo on China despite "complicated atmospherics" thrown up by China's anti-secession law, EU foreign policy head Javier Solana said Thursday.
Speaking after talks with Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, he said the bloc was battling to find compromises among its 25-member states for arrangements which would effectively replace the 15-year-old arms sales ban.
"We are working politically towards that end. We want that end to be a reality. We are working very hard ourselves on compromises that we have to find among ourselves," he told reporters.
He recalled that EU leaders agreed last December to work notably on beefing up an EU code of conduct, as preparation for lifting the embargo slapped on Beijing after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
The EU's current Luxembourg presidency has set a target of agreement on lifting the ban by the end of its term at the EU helm on June 30.
But the issue was clouded by China's adoption this week of its anti-secession law, authorizing the use of force against Taiwan if it moves towards independence.
Solana conceded that this had had a political impact, and reiterated an EU call for any dispute between Beijing and Taipei to be settled by peaceful means.
But he also said there were some "positive" elements in the Chinese law, and indicated it did not fundamentally change the EU's aim of lifting the embargo.
"The atmospherics ... may have been a little more complicated with some countries or some parliaments. We'll see how things evolve. But the political will continues to be .. to keep on working on achieving that aim."
The Chinese minister, holding a day of talks with EU officials in Brussels and Luxembourg, said earlier that he believed the EU had enough "political wisdom" to end the embargo, which he said was "irrational" and discriminatory.
03/17/2005 17:03 GMT