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By Country / Iran

Iran's Top Nuclear Negotiator Meets Chinese Officials

January 04, 2007

Ari Larijani (file photo) (AFP)

January 4, 2007 -- Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has repeated assertions of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities during talks with Chinese officials in Beijing.

Iran's official news agency, IRNA, quotes Larijani as saying during a meeting with a senior member of the China State Council, Tang Jiaxuan, that Iran remains committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Larijani, who arrived in China on January 4 for a two-day visit, was also due to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

The trip comes after the adoption in late December of a UN Security Council resolution imposing limited sanctions on Iran over its uranium-enrichment activities.

China, a permanent member of the Security Council with economic interests in Iran, has called for more talks over the nuclear crisis, saying that sanctions will not solve the problem.

Meanwhile, a former Iranian nuclear negotiator, Hussein Musavian, has called for renewed diplomacy in the standoff over Iran's sensitive nuclear activities, and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization has said his country will continue its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) despite a parliamentary call for a review of such work.

Iranian officials have rejected the UN resolution as illegal and said they will pursue their nuclear work.

(ILNA, IRNA)