Militants torch NATO oil tanker in Pakistan

Asian Defense News:

Suspected pro-Taliban militants have set fire to a truck carrying supplies to US and NATO forces in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province.

The incident took place when unidentified armed men attacked a convoy of NATO oil tankers in the Dahakar area of the country's southwestern town of Sibbi on Tuesday.

"One oil tanker was completely destroyed in the attack," local police officials told Press TV.

The tankers were on their way to Chaman Pass on the Afghan border from the southern port of Karachi, the officials added.

The bulk of supplies and equipment required by NATO and US-led forces battling the Taliban in landlocked Afghanistan passes through the restive Khyber Agency in northwest Pakistan.

Pakistani authorities have deployed heavy contingents of police and military forces on all major arteries to curb militant attacks on supplies trucked to Afghanistan through the Khyber Agency.

More than 400 trucks and containers have been torched or plundered over the last four months in the restless tribal district along the Afghan border.

The rampant attacks, especially in the Khyber region, have forced NATO to look for alternative routes, including through Central Asia.

Pakistani police seize cache of explosives in Lahore

Asian Defense News: Pakistani policemen seize 1,500 kilograms of explosive material in an abandoned shop in Lahore, recently battered by a string of blasts.

Police Superintendent Ali Nasir said the huge cache discovered on Monday included bomb-making equipment, two suicide jackets, 16 hand-grenades and hundreds of bullets.

Pakistani police officers look at confiscated ammunition in Lahore, Pakistan on Monday, March 15.

Police raided the shop after the landlord complained that the new tenants have not opened for business for many days, leading him to become suspicious.

Police Chief Parvaiz Rathore said while investigations were still continuing, ''we believe the recent terrorist attacks in the city have been originating from this place.''

The discovery was made near the site of five small bomb blasts Friday evening, hours after two terrorist bombers killed 55 people in Lahore in coordinated blasts that also wounded about 100 people.

Karzai orders extra troops in Kandahar

Asian Defense News: Afghan President Hamid Karzai has ordered extra security forces for the southern city of Kandahar, following the death of dozens of people in Taliban attacks.

"The Afghan president has ordered new security forces for better security of Kandahar," Interior Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar told reporters on Monday.

Karzai has deployed new security forces to Kandahar amid rising Taliban attacks.

The news comes a day after seven coordinated explosions, four bomber attacks and three improvised bomb blasts in Kandahar left 35 people dead and 100 injured in the largest city of the southern Taliban heartland.

The attacks are regarded as one of the biggest coordinated assaults by the Taliban in more than eight years.

The Taliban, who regard Kandahar as their spiritual center, said the attack was a preemptive response to plans by Afghan and NATO forces to launch military operations in the city.

Earlier, the governor of Kandahar province, Tooryalai Wesa, also called for more troops to be sent to the city as the residents were gripped by panic.

Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates told troops to brace for a tough fight as NATO laid plans to extend the fight against militants to Kandahar.

Related Stories:

• Taliban say Kandahar blasts were a message to NATO
• Kandahar rocked once again
• Afghan blasts kill 35, injure 100 in Kandahar

Vietnam releases leading dissident from prison

By BEN STOCKING,Associated Press Writer

Asian Defense News: HANOI, Vietnam – One of Vietnam's leading democracy activists said Tuesday that he was released from prison because he has a brain tumor and suffered three strokes while in custody.

The Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, 63, said communist authorities freed him Monday after he served just three years of an eight-year sentence because they did not want to be blamed if his health took a turn for the worse.

"They didn't want to be responsible for the treatment of my tumor, which is complicated, and they wanted to improve their standing in the international community," said Ly, speaking by phone from the main Catholic church in the central city of Hue.

Vietnam has sent 16 democracy activists to jail in the last several months and has come under frequent international criticism for its human rights record.

Ly said he was released for one year's medical probation, which can be extended at his family's request.

Vietnamese officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

A longtime human rights activist, Ly has been in and out of prison and house arrest for years, most recently for helping found a group called Bloc 8406, which promoted multiparty democracy.

In 2007, he was sentenced to eight years in prison and five years of house arrest for disseminating anti-government propaganda. During a dramatic trial, police muzzled him for shouting anti-communist slogans and accusing Vietnamese officials of practicing "the law of the jungle."

"I will always consider myself a prisoner of conscience," Ly said Tuesday. "I do not accept that sentence."

Ly was taken to his hometown of Hue in an ambulance from the Ba Sao prison in the northern province of Ha Nam.

Human rights groups welcomed Ly's release but stressed that Vietnam is still holding many other democracy activists in prison.

"By releasing Father Ly, the Vietnamese government has not reversed its deplorable rights record," said Sophie Richardson of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

Ly is partly paralyzed on the right side of his body but can walk with a cane.

"My health has improved," he said. "Four months ago, I was confined to bed and couldn't move my arm or leg."

Ly said he was held in solitary confinement in a 160-square-foot (15-square-meter) cell with a similar sized yard, where he could exercise. He was allowed to watch television and read the Communist Party newspaper, Nhan Dan.

After his last stroke, in November, he was hospitalized in Hanoi for one month, then sent back to prison. After that, another inmate moved into his cell and helped him eat and wash his clothes, Ly said.

He is now staying at the Archdiocese of Hue, where priests planned to call doctors to assess his health.

In July, 37 U.S. senators sent a letter to President Nguyen Minh Triet calling for Ly's release.

Among them was Sen. Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat, who issued a statement Monday welcoming Ly's release and describing his arrest, trial and conviction as "deeply flawed."

"It is long past time for Vietnam to abide by its own constitution and international law and immediately release all those detained for their peaceful advocacy of religious and political freedoms," she said.

Final safety checks underway ahead of soft opening of Universal Studios

Asian Defense News: SINGAPORE : Final safety checks are underway as Universal Studios Singapore gets ready for its soft opening on Thursday.

After months of waiting, the public will finally be able to go on the rides.

The Universal Studios theme park includes existing crowd pleasers like its Water World show. Members of the public can also check out the attraction based on the animation film Madagascar.

18 of the 24 attractions planned for the park are either newly created or adapted for the Singapore park.

No theme park would be without a rollercoaster, and the Battlestar Galactica trumps them all. It is Asia’s first duelling rollercoaster, and the world’s tallest too.

At several points, riders on the two rollercoasters whizz by one another with just inches to spare. It is certainly not for the faint—hearted!

When MediaCorp journalists visited the studio on Tuesday, some rides were closed briefly due to technical and safety glitches. The park said this could happen from time to time, lasting anywhere between a few minutes and a few hours. But it expects the rides to be fully operational come opening day.

John Hallenbeck, director of Operations, Universal Studios Singapore, said: "We’ve been testing attractions for months, and that’s just part of the process. And it’s not just the testing phase, but every day every attraction gets looked at — not only from a technical or mechanical standpoint, but also from an operational standpoint.

"As far as the processes that we have (are concerned), checklist, everything gets put together to ensure that we’re 100 per cent safe. There are times when attractions will have technical difficulties — that’s just the nature of theme parks and Universal Studios Singapore won’t be an exception on that."

Robin Goh, assistant director for Communications at Resorts World Sentosa, said attractions may be closed to make "creative adjustments". "For example, we have to make sure that the dinosaurs, for example, at Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure pop out at a certain time. We expect the park to be fully operational and fully running by Thursday."

Final safety checks underway ahead of soft opening of Universal Studios

Tour agents said packages to the theme park are selling fast. And observers believe spinoffs to Singapore’s tourism sector will be considerable.

Travel agent Eric Seetoh said: "Usually tourists to Singapore, they would only stay two to three days. But nowadays, I notice that because of the theme park, they’re willing to stay in Singapore for more than four days or even five days."

About 4.5 million visitors are expected to the park each year.

SilkAir to start new services to Bangalore & Chennai in India

Asian Defense News: SINGAPORE: SilkAir, the regional wing of Singapore Airlines (SIA), will soon add two more cities in India to its route network.

Subject to regulatory approvals, SilkAir will offer daily flights between Singapore and Bangalore, the capital city of the state of Karnataka, from May 17.

SilkAir to start new services to Bangalore & Chennai in India

It will also offer daily flights between Singapore and Chennai, the capital city of the state of Tamil Nadu, from June 14.

The flights will be operated by SilkAir’s Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft.

The introduction of these new services will complement Singapore Airlines’ existing daily flights to both cities.

The third most populous city in India, Bangalore is known as the ’Silicon Valley of India’ and is home to numerous software companies.

Chennai, formerly known as Madras, has a diverse economic base anchored by the automobile, technology, hardware manufacturing and healthcare industries.

SilkAir said the two cities’ buoyant economic growth offers favourable prospects for business traffic and commercial cargo on its services.

It also has great potential for attracting tourism and leisure traffic with its many sights including World Heritage sites and historical and cultural attractions.

Chief executive, Mr Chin Yau Seng, said: "We see good prospects for growth in air traffic to and from India, and are pleased to strengthen our presence in India with the addition of these two new points." — CNA/vm

Jailhouse rocks for Philippine Internet dance sensations

Asian Defense News: CEBU, Philippines (AFP) - – From the moment teenager Egan Torrecampo and his fellow prisoners step out of their crowded cells, the maximum-security Philippine jailhouse rocks.

Dressed in tangerine jump suits, the roughly 1,500 convicted murderers, rapists and other inmates perform a series of Michael Jackson-inspired dances that have helped boost their morale while also making them Internet sensations.

"When we are dancing we tend to forget why we were here in the first place," 19-year-old Torrecampo, the flamboyant lead dancer of the jailhouse troupe, told AFP after a recent courtyard performance.

Jailhouse rocks for Philippine Internet dance sensations

Torrecampo, an openly gay former call centre employee, was sentenced in 2008 to six years in jail for attempted murder after stabbing his 69-year-old American boyfriend.

His enforced move to the jail in Cebu, the Philippines' second biggest city, earned him a slot in a team that had improbably rocketed to global fame the previous year.

The Internet phenomenon began when footage of the prisoners performing the zombie dance from Jackson's "Thriller" music video was posted on the video-sharing website YouTube.

It quickly became one of the most watched clips on the Internet and has now registered nearly 40 million hits.

Dozens of different dances from the inmates have since been posted on the web, many of which have also gone viral and been watched by millions.

These include the Village People's "Y.M.C.A.", the rapper MC Hammer's "U Can't Touch This", Queen's "Radio Gaga", and even the Gregorian Chants in the middle of a Catholic mass celebrated on the prison yard.

Their latest brought them heavyweight recognition as Jackson's choreographer travelled to the jail in January to train them to dance for the King of Pop's "They Don't Care About Us" song, which was used to promote his posthumous DVD.

"We are ordinary people. At first we could not believe that we would be visited by an extraordinary person who teaches Hollywood stars to dance," Torrecampo said of Travis Payne, Jackson's choreographer.

The "Don't Care About Us" clip has scored 4.4 million hits on YouTube in less than three months.

A former security consultant at the jail, Byron Garcia, came up with the idea in 2006 of using dance as a way to rehabilitate the prisoners and give them a break from the daily grind of life behind bars.

"Rehabilitation has to be anchored on bringing out the best in men instead of the worst of men," Garcia wrote on his personal website.

"If we make jails a living hell for these inmates, then we might just be turning out devils once they are released!"

There has been some controversy over allegations that the inmates have been forced into dancing, and that they have become a tourist attraction with visitors paying to watch their performances.

Orange prison-style T-shirts promoting the dancers are for sale at the jail for 170 pesos (3.7 dollars).

The tourist shows were suspended recently as the governor of Cebu province, Gwendolyn Garcia, who is the sister of Byron, apparently sought to quash rumours that her family was profiting from the dancing venture.

"I think you are all aware of the intrigues, the innuendos, the whispers, unfairly or unjustly accusing certain personalities of benefiting from such fame," she told local reporters last month.

"In order to put a stop to all of this, I issued a memorandum reminding one and all that all activities that have been going on must be cleared with the office of the governor, namely myself."

Nevertheless, the inmates were brought out for an AFP team on a recent visit, and prison warden Lito Gabuya insisted the dancing was all voluntary.

"They are proud of it," Gabuya told AFP. "Almost all inmates dance, except those who are sick or elderly."

For Torrecampo, dancing has given him hope that he may have a meaningful career after he is released.

"I want to become a choreographer -- maybe even a film star," he said.

Pro-N.Korean school mums rally in Japan

Asian Defense News: TOKYO (AFP) - – Hundreds of mothers whose children attend pro-North Korean schools in Japan rallied on Tuesday, demanding that the government include them in plans to make high school tuition free.

Japan's six-month-old government on the same day passed a lower house bill to scrap school fees and give aid to private schools, meeting one of their key pro-family election campaign pledges.

Pro-N.Korean school mums rally in Japan

The pro-Pyongyang schools have so far been excluded from the programme that starts in April after opposition from conservatives who say Tokyo should not support schools linked with the nuclear-armed communist country.

About 2,000 students attend 10 pro-Pyongyang schools in Japan, which are run under the instructions of the North Korean residents' association Chongryon, Pyongyang's de facto embassy, and feature portraits of national founder Kim Il-Sung and his son Kim Jong-Il in their classrooms.

On Tuesday about 300 ethnic Korean mothers, many walking with toddlers and pushing prams, rallied in Tokyo, urging the centre-left government of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama not to discriminate against their children.

"We must move the government to include our schools in the tuition-free programme with the power of omoni ('mothers' in Korean)," one woman shouted at the rally organised by a network of Korean mothers in Japan.

Ryang Son-ryo, a 37-year-old mother, said: "We were born in Japan and will continue living here. We have been discriminated against in many ways in Japan, but we don't want our children to go through the same thing."

Some 700,000 ethnic Koreans live in Japan, mostly descendants of migrants and forced labourers who were brought to the country during its 1910-1945 era of occupation of the Korean peninsula.

Most identify with South Korea or hold that country's passport, but a minority are affiliated with the Pyongyang regime, which has angered Japan with missile and nuclear tests, and by kidnapping its citizens in the 1970s and 80s to train the regime's spies.

Hiroshi Nakai, state minister in charge of handling the North Korean abduction issue, has openly voiced his opposition to letting pro-Pyongyang Korean schools receive Japanese public funds under the programme.

At the rally 17-year-old pro-Pyongyang high school student Cho Ei-Ok said: "Can the Japanese government solve the kidnapping and nuclear issues if they discriminate against us?"

E.Timor still waiting for Indonesia apology: president

Asian Defense News: TOKYO (AFP) - – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta said Tuesday that Indonesia still needs to apologise for its brutal occupation of the half-island even if relations between the neighbours have improved.

"The only thing still missing is an apology... by those who were directing all the suffering," Ramos-Horta told reporters during a visit to Japan.

E.Timor still waiting for Indonesia apology: president

East Timor gained formal independence in 2002 after a bloody 24-year occupation by Indonesia that led to the deaths of up to 200,000 people.

A reconciliation commission established jointly by East Timor and Indonesia found in 2008 that while gross human rights abuses were committed by Indonesian forces, there should be no more trials and no further arrests.

Nobel Peace laureate Ramos-Horta, despite having lost three siblings in the conflict, has been opposed to the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes committed during the 1975-1999 occupation.

Indonesia's former president Abrurrahman Wahid apologised when he visited East Timor in 2000 but successive leaders including current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have stopped short of an apology, instead expressing regret.

The government in Dili has been pursuing a policy of appeasement with Jakarta, its biggest trade partner and an active supporter of East Timor's membership bid for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We have excellent relations with Indonesia... Normalising relations with Indonesia was decisive for our own peace and stability, and integrating in the region," said Ramos-Horta.

But "it doesn't mean that we do not respect the suffering of the victims. Our state does not want to put the burden of helping the victims on anyone else, in this case Indonesia. We seek to help all the victims."

Ramos-Horta on his visit also met Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and energy sector executives. He also secured 700 million yen (7.7 million dollars) in grant aid for forest preservation and renewable energy projects.

The half-island state is one of the world's poorest countries and heavily dependent on natural gas exports. It was battered by plummeting energy prices during the global economic downturn.

Ramos-Horta is due to visit the city of Hiroshima to participate in a forum on nuclear disarmament.

US-Indonesia military deal uncertain ahead of Obama visit

Asian Defense News: WASHINGTON (AFP) - – The United States said Monday it could not predict when it would resume full military ties with Indonesia, as it laid out the details of President Barack Obama's trip to Jakarta and Bali next week.

Obama spent four years as a boy in Indonesia with his late mother, but the trip is more geared to business, focusing on trade, security and diplomacy rather than his biography or his childhood haunts.

US-Indonesia military deal uncertain ahead of Obama visit

In the run-up to the visit, the administration has been preparing the way to resume training an elite Indonesian military unit as part of growing counter-insurgency and intelligence cooperation with Jakarta.

But the move would be controversial as the Kopassus unit is implicated in past human rights abuses, including in East Timor, and some key players in Congress oppose embracing the force before it has accounted for past behavior.

It remains unclear whether the dispute over Kopassus will be resolved in time for Obama's visit which begins on March 23.

Officers from Kopassus were in Washington only last week in a bid to secure resumed US support for the unit, which was cut off in 1997.

"It would be good if we could move to full cooperation, fuller cooperation to include the special forces, the counterterrorism capabilities within the special forces of Kopassus," said Jeffrey Bader, Obama's senior director for Asian affairs, briefing reporters on Obama's trip.

"There is a certain history that needs to be overcome. There were human rights violations in the 1990s in former East Timor.

"We hope to be able at some point to move past and resolve those concerns (but) I can't predict at this point when that day might arrive."

US officials have been complimentary on the growing security cooperation between Washington and Jakarta.

Last week, Indonesia confirmed that a major suspect of the 2002 Bali bombing, known as Dulmatin, an Al-Qaeda trained bomb specialist with a 10 million US dollar bounty on his head, has been killed by police.

Obama will arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday, March 23 and have a meeting and a press conference with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, before being honored at a state dinner.

The next day, Obama is likely to make his most expressive reference to his childhood years in Indonesia, in a major speech also intended to build on his address to the Muslim world in Cairo last June.

"He'll be able to speak to some of the progress that's been made and that needs to be made on the issues that he spoke to in Cairo," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security advisor for strategic communications.

Obama will then meet with local business leaders and make some so far unspecified stops, but the White House has already said he will not visit the school he once attended in Jakarta, or the house where he lived.

The president will then head to the resort of Bali where he will hold an event with civil society groups to showcase Indonesia's democratic progress in recent years, before heading to Canberra, Australia.

Obama's departure for Indonesia, which US officials see as an increasingly important player in East Asia, was delayed by three days until Sunday, March 21, allowing him to remain in Washington for the endgame of his health reform drive.

Gunbattle erupts at Indian space centre in Bangalore

Asian Defense News: By Habib Beary BANGALORE, India - Two men fired at security guards outside a high security space centre in southern India on Tuesday but it was too early to link it to a militant attack, the government said.

The brief shootout occurred in Byalalu, on the outskirts of IT hub Bangalore, outside an Indian Space Research Organisation building.

The Home Ministry sees ISRO buildings as a high priority target for militants, and has beefed up security around them after warnings of possible attacks.

Police said it was "too early to speak of a terror link." Federal Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram told reporters in New Delhi that the attackers wore "some kind of a uniform" and possibly shot from country-made pistols.

"We have to find out who these people were, seems to be some kind of an amateurish attack," Chidambaram said.

"Nothing to be alarmed about. At the moment you can only call it an attack, whether it was terrorist or somebody else, we'll know."

India has raised security in the aftermath of a bombing that killed 16 people in western India last month. Home Secretary Gopal Pillai told Reuters on Monday that attack was carried out by home-grown militants with links to militants in Pakistan.

New Delhi has repeatedly accused Pakistan of failing to stop militants from carrying out attacks inside India.

India and Pakistan held their first official level talks since the 2008 Mumbai attacks last month. Analysts say another major attack on India could make it politically difficult for New Delhi to engage Pakistan and impact regional security.

Earlier, a spokesman for the ISRO said the shootout continued for some time.

"Two people were seen moving in a suspicious manner outside our centre," ISRO spokesman S. Satish said.

"The police immediately challenged them, and they opened fire in retaliation."

Police said they had launched a search for the two men who fled after the shootout.

25 dead in China coal mine fire

Asian Defense News: BEIJING (AFP) - – Twenty-five people have been killed in a coal mine fire in central China, local authorities said Tuesday, the latest deadly incident in the country's hazardous mining industry.

The city government said the blaze in a mine in Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, was sparked when cables caught fire late Monday in one of the main pits.

25 dead in China coal mine fire

Six miners were saved, but the rest died.

Police have detained at least three mine managers and frozen their assets and those of the facility after an initial investigation revealed the mine was operating illegally, the government said.

China's coal mines are among the most dangerous in the world, with safety standards often ignored in the quest for profits and the drive to meet surging demand for coal -- the source of about 70 percent of China's energy.

Earlier this month, more than 30 miners were killed in a flood at a coal mine in the Inner Mongolia region in northern China.

China star Zhang takes blame in 'Donationgate'

Asian Defense News: BEIJING (AFP) - – Chinese film starlet Zhang Ziyi has taken the blame for an earthquake donation scandal in her first comments on a flap that sparked a firestorm of Internet criticism and questions about her honesty.

Fighting back tears, Zhang told the China Daily in an interview published Tuesday that she failed to follow up with her staff after telling them to transfer money she had promised to victims of China's huge May 2008 earthquake.

China star Zhang takes blame in 'Donationgate'

"I take the main responsibility for the lapse and causing my staff to mix it up," said the 31-year-old Zhang, the star of films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Memoirs of a Geisha".

"Donationgate," as China's state media dubbed the row, surfaced in January when a popular Chinese website said Zhang had given only 840,000 yuan (124,000 dollars) of a promised one million yuan. The donations were eventually made.

The 8.0-magnitude quake devastated parts of southwestern China, leaving at least 87,000 people dead or missing.

Zhang has long been a lightning rod for criticism in her home country, but came under intense fire on the Chinese Internet and media over the donations.

Even normally staid state television, whose typical fare consists of reports praising government leadership, ran a talk-show segment implying Zhang had not come clean.

In the interview, Zhang also denied widespread allegations of missing funds in a foundation she set up for quake victims, saying: "We have never done anything illegal."

Zhang said she had remained mum on the issue up until now on the advice of lawyers, but admitted the attacks on her character had taken a toll.

"Of course there were moments when I felt bad," she said.

"I wanted to do something good, but we had our problems, such as my lack of experience, my failure to disclose to the public, my limited knowledge about philanthropy and other reasons."

Zhang has come under attack before in China, where fans often savage entertainment stars online for actions deemed shameful to the country.

She has been criticised for having a foreign boyfriend -- Israeli billionaire Vivi Nevo -- and for playing a Japanese woman in "Geisha".

In 2008, actress Gong Li's decision to become a Singapore citizen sparked a similar outcry, with many branding her a traitor.

China 'more concerned' over Iran nuclear crisis

Asian Defense News: BEIJING (AFP) - – China said Tuesday it was growing more concerned over the Iran nuclear crisis but again resisted calls to back sanctions, insisting negotiations were the best way to resolve the impasse.

Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who is seeking Beijing's support for tougher UN sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear drive, voiced his increasing impatience with Tehran.

China 'more concerned' over Iran nuclear crisis

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi pledged after talks with Miliband that Beijing would work more closely with other world powers on Iran, which is suspected by the West of secretly trying to develop the atomic bomb.

"Regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, I wish to point out that this issue is the subject of widespread attention in the international community. China has become more concerned about the current situation," Yang said.

Miliband, speaking alongside Yang at a joint press briefing, had tough words for Tehran, noting an increasing "lack of confidence in the international community as to Iranian intentions."

He said Iran "can be treated as a normal country on nuclear matters when they behave as a normal country."

But Yang gave no sign that China would bend to mounting pressure to support a new round of sanctions on Tehran, which insists its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful energy needs.

"Ultimately, this issue has to be appropriately resolved through peaceful negotiations," Yang said.

China, a major ally of Iran and a key buyer of its energy resources, has so far resisted calls for more sanctions. In the past, it maintained a similar stance, only to eventually acquiesce to watered-down measures.

But Yang indicated China's willingness to work more deeply with the six world powers -- the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany -- spearheading the drive to contain Iran's nuclear drive.

"We will have even closer contact with members of the P5 + 1 mechanism and other related parties. We will continue to make efforts to bring about a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear issue," Yang said.

The two foreign ministers also pledged to work together to strengthen diplomatic ties after the two nations clashed on human rights and global warning as well as their differences on Iran.

Relations between Beijing and London soured last year when Miliband's younger brother Ed, the British climate change secretary, accused China of "hijacking" the global climate change talks in Copenhagen.

Britain was also furious at China's execution in December of a Briton on drug smuggling charges.

"I come here in the spirit of partnership as we face common challenges together," Miliband told Yang.

Yang said relations were "developing in a positive direction," adding: "We are committed to working with Britain to advance the comprehensive strategic partnership."

Miliband also said he raised the issue of human rights with China, particularly the case of Gao Zhisheng, a rights lawyer whose whereabouts China refuses to divulge after he was taken away by police more than a year ago.

Gao had been on probation after being convicted of subversion in 2006.

Yang denied Gao had been tortured or his rights violated, but provided no further information on him.

Australia says China ties 'back on track'

Asian Defense News: SYDNEY (AFP) - – Relations with China were "back on track", Australia said Tuesday, adding it was optimistic Beijing would behave as a "responsible stakeholder" in global harmony as its power grew.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said ties would be tested "from time to time, owing to our different political systems, histories and societies," and problems would arise "whether Australia or China both like it or not."

Australia says China ties 'back on track'

But he told a forum of business leaders that the two countries had forged through a diplomatically difficult period by agreeing to disagree "on the basis of mutual respect."

"The fact that bilateral relations are now seen to be back on track indicates that both sides have been and are committed to dealing with difficult issues in a straightforward and constructive way," Smith said.

Tensions between the major trading partners flared last year over the arrest of Rio Tinto executive and Australian passport holder Stern Hu in China and a visit to Australia by exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer.

Smith said Australia would maintain an interest in issues such as human rights as China's economic and strategic influence grew.

"This (influence) inevitably brings with it greater expectations of China taking up a commensurate share of responsibility as a good international citizen," he told the Australia-China Business Council.

"We are optimistic that China will emerge into a harmonious world as a responsible stakeholder," added Smith.

The comments follow Trade Minister Simon Crean's warning this week that Beijing should act as a market economy and keep out of fraught iron ore price talks between global mining companies and state-owned steel mills.

China vowed Tuesday to support its mills in the thorny negotiations, in defiance of Crean's blunt advice.