The US ambassador to the United Nations, Mr Bill Richardson, gave Chinese leaders in Beijing an unusually detailed briefing on Iraq's weapons capacity on Saturday, in the hope of averting a Chinese veto against military action in the UN Security Council.
Beijing officials declined to say later how they would vote at the UN but a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Tang Guoqiang, who is accompanying the Prime Minister, Mr Li Peng, on a visit to the Netherlands, said in Rotterdam yesterday that China had made clear to Mr Richardson that it remained opposed to the use of force against Iraq.
Mr Tang also said China did not believe the Iraq crisis had reached a sufficient pitch to require the involvement of the UN Security Council and, asked if China would abstain, he said: "We have not reached this stage yet."
He added: "Our foreign minister made it very clear to Bill Richardson that as permanent members of the United Nations Security Council both (China and the US) should be working hard to solve the crisis in a peaceful way."
US officials accompanying Mr Richardson, who met the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Qian Qichen, during a two-day visit to Beijing, said they did not believe China would use its veto to block a military strike.
The US envoy played down differences with China and expressed pessimism about the possibility of diplomatic efforts succeeding. "It does not look very good or promising right now," he told a press conference in Beijing on Saturday evening.
The close consultation with China reflects both the US goal of enlisting support around the world for a military strike, and the acceptance by both sides that China is now playing a big power role on the world stage. In 1991, China took no part in the international diplomacy preceding the Gulf War and abstained in Security Council resolutions.
Mr Richardson argued strongly against the recent diplomatic offer which would give a non-UN special commission team 60 days to inspect eight sites. "In the end this plan would permit future Iraqi concealment and undermine the authority of UNSCOM (UN Special Commission) to inspect any facility it deems necessary," he said.
"At just one of those eight sites - the sprawling Republican Palace compound in Baghdad - there are more than 700 buildings. Many of these buildings are part of the presidential security network which is also responsible for concealing documents, chemicals and weapons of mass destruction from the United Nations. It is preposterous to think how experts could conduct an effective inspection. You can imagine how useless a onetime or 60-day inspection would be.
"In addition Iraq has a total of 78 palaces and VIP residences. Fifty-eight of these have been built since the Gulf War. Billions of dollars are spent on these opulent palaces. Some are bigger than Versailles. One palace compound is bigger that the city of Washington DC."
Iraq still had "chemical and biological agents and munitions, long-range ballistic missiles and the expertise, facilities and equipment to quickly restart production", he said.
Asked if air strikes would be punitive or designed to destroy weapons facilities as he had said Iraq had the expertise to restart programmes quickly, Mr Richardson said any action would be designed to diminish the capacity of Iraq to produce such weapons and threaten its neighbours.
"My delegation provided the Chinese diplomats with documentation detailing Iraq's continued production of weapons of mass destruction," Mr Richardson said.
Indicating the contents, he told journalists: "Let me describe how dangerous even a small amount of any of their chemical weapons can be. One example is VX gas. A tiny droplet can kill a human in 15 minutes. It not only kills rapidly, it lasts a long time in the environment."
Mr Qian, said on Saturday that China was deeply concerned about the crisis and that the Security Council had a duty to seek a peaceful solution. If force is used, it will inevitably cause serious consequences and significant casualties of innocent people and will not contribute to a solution of the question over weapons inspection, he said.
Mr Richardson said his visit, hopefully, "will mean closer consultation and less criticism of each other's position". It had been an "investment in future Chinese actions".
Beijing has demanded that Iraq comply fully with UN resolutions and open its suspected weapons sites to scrutiny.
Mr Richardson arrived in China from Japan, where Japanese officials did not rule out force against Iraq. China, Russia and France are adamantly opposed to military action. The US has said Britain, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Hungary the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are prepared to supply forces and logistical help.