China will not participate in a multilateral meeting aimed at discussing the Iranian nuclear issue, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday.

 

The meeting, scheduled to be held in Berlin today, is a gathering of senior officials from the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.

 

Liu said Beijing's absence is due to technical reasons, adding its position on Teheran's nuclear issue had not changed.

 

Myanmar issue

 

Referring to UN envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari's current Asian trip, Liu said China welcomed Gambari's forthcoming visit to exchange views on the issue.

 

Gambari, dispatched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has already traveled to Thailand and Malaysia and is to head to India, China and Japan.

 

 

Japanese held

 

Procurators in the northeastern city Shenyang have arrested a Japanese man in connection with illegal organ transplants, Liu said.

 

The suspect's name is Nagase Hiroyuki, a legal representative for a Japanese-invested information and consultation company in Shenyang of northeast China's Liaoning Province.

 

Under the name of "China International Transplantation Network Assistance Center", the company first released information on the Internet in 2004 offering organ transplant services for Japanese customers.

 

Liu said such an activity was beyond the company's scope and had broken Ministry of Health rules.

 

China implemented a regulation on organ transplants in May with provisions to prohibit the organ business and to respect donor wishes.

 

Liu said the case was under further investigation.

 

Attack in Ukraine

 

Liu also said three female Chinese students who were attacked by unidentified gangsters with knives in the capital city Kiev of Ukraine are no longer in critical condition.

 

The incident took place late Sunday.

 

The foreign ministry had paid high attention to it, urging the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese students, the spokesman said.

 

Dalai Lama

 

China strongly opposed a so-called Congressional gold medal to Dalai Lama from the US Congress and the presence of President George W. Bush to the awarding ceremony, and strongly urged the US side to cancel such arrangement.

 

"China is strongly resentful of and resolutely opposes this and has made solemn represent to the US side. We seriously urged the US side to correct such wrong doing and cancel relevant arrangement, and stop interfering in China's domestic affairs in any forms," Liu said.

 

"The words and deeds of Dalai Lama in the dozens of years showed that he is a political refugee engaging in separating the country in the name of religion," Liu said.

 

He stressed that the Chinese people have undeviating resolution to safeguard their national sovereignty and territorial integrity. Any conspiracy using Dalai Lama issue to interfere in China's internal affairs is destined to be defeated.

 

Sudan political crisis

 

"We believe the Sudan National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) will proceed from the overall situation of national unity and reconciliation and safeguard the hard-won peace between north and south," Liu said.

 

He said China hopes they could resolve the issue through dialogue and consultations and make joint efforts to implement the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) so as to push forward peace process in the country.

 

The SPLM, a former anti-government group in southern Sudan, decided last Thursday to suspend its partnership with the Sudanese central government and recall its senior officials in the government of National Unity.

 

The SPLM signed a peace agreement, the CPA, with the Sudanese government in 2005 according to which the ruling NCP is to share the political power with the SPLM in the government.

 

The NCP said it would conduct more consultations with its peace partner, the SPLM, to settle the political crisis between them.

 

Nobel Peace Prize winners

 

China congratulated former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on their winning of this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

 

Liu said China appreciated Gore and IPCC's positive role in promoting international cooperation on dealing with climate change issues.

 

Gore and the IPCC jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on October 12 for their efforts to raise awareness of the threat of climate change.

 

President of Costa Rica to visit

 

Liu announced that Oscar Arias Sanchez, president of Costa Rica, will pay a state visit to China from October 22 to 28 at the invitation of President Hu Jintao.

 

(China Daily, Xinhua News Agency October 17, 2007)