DATE=3-6-01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-273335

TITLE=CHINA / IRAQ DENIAL- L

BYLINE=JIM RANDLE

DATELINE=BEIJING

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: China's Foreign Minister says a just-completed investigation shows that China did not help Iraq improve its air defenses. Washington has accused Beijing of violating UN resolutions by sending technicians to improve key military communications links that threaten US bombers in Iraq's skies. V-O-A's Jim Randle reports from Beijing.

TEXT: In a rare meeting with journalists, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan, speaking through a translator - flatly denied US allegations that China had been helping Iraq.

/// TANG ACT ///

The relevant agencies in China have carried out some serious investigations. The result of the investigation is that Chinese enterprises have not assisted Iraq in building the project of fiber optic cables used in air defense.

/// END ACT ///

Chinese officials initially dismissed the US charges, but then offered last week to conduct an investigation.

Mr. Tang announced the results of the investigation at a wide-ranging news conference in Beijing during the annual legislative meeting.

US officials accused Chinese technicians of helping to install fiber optic cables that link radars and other key parts of Iraq's air defense together, helping them work as a team and making them far more dangerous to US and British planes that patrol much of Iraq's airspace.

UN sanctions imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait ban military sales to Iraq. Last month, US and British warplanes bombed a site near Baghdad where the fiber optic cables were allegedly being installed by Chinese workers. Some of the bombs went astray and two civilians were killed, prompting strong criticism of the US from China and many other countries.

Foreign Minister Tang said the US charges against China were probably motivated by a desire to divert world attention away from the US bombing campaign.

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US and British patrols have been keeping Iraqi military forces from attacking minority groups in northern and southern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War more than 10 years ago. (Signed)

NEB/HK/JR/JO/PLM