BRUSSELS, May 7 (UPI) -- Despite intensive lobbying by China, the European Union has refused to lift a 15-year-old arms embargo against the country, The Guardian said Friday.
Meeting in Brussels, Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, and the president of the European commission, Romano Prodi, did sign new agreements to boost trade ties and pledged to deepen relations.
Wen brought a delegation of 100 who tried, but failed to secure an end to the arms embargo imposed after the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Tiananmen Square.
France and Germany are both keen to sell sophisticated weapons to China, and argue that the issue is now of purely symbolic significance.
But Britain, concerned about limits on democracy in Hong Kong, is against ending the embargo.
Wen insisted China was making progress on human rights and reiterated a promise to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which it signed in 1998.
