Australia is China's latest conquest in campaign to disremember Beijing's human rights accord

FIRST it was France, then Germany, Italy and Spain, then Greece, and pow Australia

FIRST it was France, then Germany, Italy and Spain, then Greece, and pow Australia. Every direction China looks this week, it sees diplomatic advances in its eight-year struggle to persuade countries round the world not to censure its human rights record at the United Nations.

The censure resolution was first sponsored by western nations in 1990 in reaction to the crushing of pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

At that time the EU also imposed an arms embargo on China. This too seems about to splinter, with the French Defence Minister, Mr Charles Millon, hinting strongly in Beijing this week that France is impatient with the embargo and wants to resume arms sales.

This week the Chinese leadership can at last feel they have begun to put the legacy of Tiananmen behind them.

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Australia said yesterday it had struck a deal with China to set up a formal dialogue on human rights and would no longer back a resolution criticising China at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

The decision came after talks in Canberra with visiting Chinese Justice Minister, Mr Xiao Yang. The Australian Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, said he didn't believe the UN resolution would achieve anything.

"The only way we believe that in our human rights diplomacy with China we can be remotely effective is by establishing some king of dialogue," he said.

The human rights dialogue was suggested to Premier Li Peng by visiting Australian Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, last week. It was greeted with scepticism by a spokesman for the Australian Council for Overseas Aid, who said "it could, in fact, let China off the hook."

China has resisted bilateral discussion of its human rights record, insisting that it is an internal affair. Beijing said it is now prepared to sign one of two UN human rights covenants it previously refused to endorse, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The second covenant deals with political freedoms.

Meanwhile, a newly confident China has turned its wrath on Denmark for pressing ahead with its own resolution condemning China after the EU failed to submit an agreed motion because of France's turnaround.

"Denmark should seriously consider its national interests and consider seriously the consequences," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mr Shen Guofang told a news briefing in Beijing yesterday, indicating Beijing would retaliate in economic relations.

Ireland has said it will support the Danish motion because of the jailing of dissidents and other human rights issues, and another eight EU states are expected to do so. As in every year since 1989, the resolution is likely to be defeated by a "no action" counter-resolution from China.

The EU is now split down the middle on the issue, with Greece deciding in mid-week to join France, Germany, Spain and Italy in refusing to condemn China diplomats said.

The US is strongly backing Denmark. The US State Department, in its annual report for 1996, said China had effectively silenced public dissent by or exiling virtually every dissident.

"Sino-US relations have already seen improvements, but the support of Denmark will of course damage bilateral relations," Mr Shen said.

The response was unusually restrained, however, and the issue is not expected to set back the relationship significantly as President Jiang Zemin is planning a high-profile trip to Washington to consolidate his leadership.

"The passing of time and the growing importance of China as an economic power are the two most important factors in the break-up of the western world's opposition," said a European diplomat.

The ending of the EU arms embargo could follow. China, which has been relying heavily on Russia for military hardware, is believed to be anxious to purchase French produced jet engines for military aircraft.

France's defence industry is the largest in Europe and is seeking new markets to counter a slump in domestic orders.

Britain last year allowed the sale of surveillance equipment on the grounds that it did not increase China's military capacities. It still bans the sale of missiles, military aircraft, warships and armoured vehicles.