EU said to push China on human rights issue

BRUSSELS -- The European Union wants China to make a significant gesture on human rights before it lifts its arms embargo, senior EU diplomats say.

The linkage, which is new, will be discussed at an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers at the end of the week and may emerge as the official new line after the talks, according to a French diplomat who declined to be identified.

The apparent policy shift coincides with the admission by EU officials that Europe's controversial plan to lift the embargo by the end of June has run into major obstacles.

If the June deadline is not met, the ban on weapons sales could remain in place at least until 2006.

Britain, among the least enthusiastic nations about ending the embargo, will hold the EU presidency from July to December and is unlikely to want to oversee the lifting of the embargo on its watch.

The EU's schedule has been thrown into doubt by a number of factors, including severe critical reaction from the United States, which fears that European arms sales to China could shift the strategic balance in the region and which has repeatedly expressed concerns about human rights.

Following a new sharp round of criticism from the United States, Annalisa Giannella, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana's personal representative on nonproliferation, traveled to Washington this month for talks about the embargo. She was due to travel to Asia on a similar mission beginning today, visiting Tokyo, Seoul, and Sydney.

In an interview, Giannella said: ''Nobody has said we are going to lift our embargo for free. It would require an important concrete step to be taken by the Chinese."

She was speaking about human rights, but said a decision on the embargo would involve more than that and would rely on the strength of the EU's planned post-embargo export controls.

''Everybody can see that there are difficulties and we are looking into different ways to make progress," said the French diplomat.