China has said the "legitimate interests" of foreign countries in Iraq should be safeguarded, in a veiled reference to contracts Chinese companies signed with the regime of former president Saddam Hussein.
State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan (
"The legitimate interests of various countries in Iraq should be guaranteed," Tang, a former foreign minister, was quoted as saying.
Tang also told his visitor China was ready to assume a "positive role" in the economic reconstruction of postwar Iraq.
The Chinese government enjoyed good relations with Saddam's Iraq, and commerce between the two countries thrived during the dictator's years in power.
China was the second-largest arms supplier to Iraq in the 1980s and 1990s, accounting for 18 percent of the Middle Eastern country's weapons imports, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative US think tank.
Chinese companies were engaged in extensive business with the former Iraqi regime, but these deals now face an uncertain future following the change of guard in Baghdad.
The China National Petroleum Corp in June 1997 signed a contract with Baghdad allowing the Chinese oil giant to develop the Al-Ahdab oil field in southern Iraq, for instance.
But in May this year, Iraq's oil minister was quoted as saying that the contract had been frozen.
An official with the Chinese oil company contacted yesterday suggested no definitive decision had been made on the project.
"The issue is ongoing," he said, declining to elaborate.
China Aviation Technology Import-Export Corp (CATIC), meanwhile, won a contract to sell meteorological satellite and surface observation equipment to Iraq, according to the Heritage Foundation.
CATIC also received UN approval in July 2000 to sell fiber-optic cables to Iraq worth US$2 million, the foundation said.
An official at CATIC's West Asia and North Africa section, responsible for sales to Iraq, declined to comment.
Talabani has previously remarked about the fate of contracts signed between foreign companies and the Saddam administration.
In May, he told French radio that all agreements signed by France with Iraq's ousted regime would be up for reconsideration, in a likely hint at lucrative oil deals signed in the 1990s with French oil companies.
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