France's Sarkozy to visit China this year

PARIS, May 23 (Reuters) French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who criticised China over its human rights record while on the campaign trail, plans to travel there this year for friendly but frank discussions, his office said today.

Sarkozy has said he wants to put human rights at the heart of his foreign policy and has appointed left-wing former humanitarian activist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister.

Sarkozy's spokesman David Martinon, however, made no mention of human rights in his account of a telephone conversation between Sarkozy and Chinese President Hu Jintao today.

''We will discuss all subjects in a friendly but also frank manner. I admire China and I want to have a trusting, regular and friendly relationship with China's leaders,'' Martinon quoted right winger Sarkozy as saying.

''There will be no solution on the issue of Iran, on the issue of Darfur, on the issue of North Korea without a strong and positive involvement of China,'' he said, adding: ''France recognises only one China.'' Unlike his predecessor Jacques Chirac, Sarkozy has said he is against lifting a European Union ban on arms exports to China because China had to do better on human rights.

Brussels imposed the ban after Chinese authorities killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in 1989.

Hu told Sarkozy he was ''an old and respected friend of the Chinese people who has always seen to the improvement in relations between France and China'', Martinon said.

''President Hu Jintao invited President Nicolas Sarkozy to come to Beijing as soon as this year, an invitation that president Sarkozy accepted without hesitation,'' Martinon said.

Reuters SLD DB2301