Japan urges EU to keep arms embargo on China

BERLIN, Jan 10 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe today urged the European Union to keep its embargo on arms sales to China, saying the purpose behind Beijing's growing defence spending was unclear.

Speaking after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose government holds the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, Abe said China's expanding economy was positive for the world.

''But the lack of transparency in China's defence spending is an issue,'' he told a joint news conference with Merkel. ''We are concerned about the implications that a lifting of the arms embargo would have on the security of East Asia.'' Japan and China have long been wary of each other's military ambitions, although Abe has been working to repair Sino-Japanese ties frayed by his predecessor's visits to a shrine Beijing considers a symbol of Tokyo's militaristic past.

China has been asking the EU to lift the embargo on arms sales imposed after the bloody suppression of the Tiananmen Square protests by Chinese authorities in 1989. But the EU has expressed serious concern about Beijing's human rights situation and has been standing by conditions for lifting the ban.

Merkel told the news conference she was not thinking about ending the embargo, a move she has long opposed but which her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder favoured.

Abe, in Berlin as part of a whirlwind tour of Europe, said Japan and Germany also discussed the need to work together on UN reform, with the two sides having been partners in abortive efforts in 2005 to expand the UN Security Council.

Japan has been working on a new proposal for reform in a renewed bid to win US support for its campaign for a permanent seat on the decision-making body.

''When the time is appropriate, we will campaign again with cooperation from a wide range of members,'' Abe said.

Merkel said she hoped talks would gain momentum.

''We think that reform efforts will be renewed under the new United Nations Secretary General,'' she said, referring to new UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

REUTERS BDP BD2353