20000321

Holbrooke in

China, to discuss

Taiwan

BEIJING: US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke held talks on Monday with Chinese officials in an effort to probe Beijing's reaction to Taiwan president-elect Chen Shui-bian.

"We're here to talk about UN issues right now and we'll talk about other things later," Holbrooke said before a meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya.

"We can both see that other events have taken place which also might come up in the next two days and we look forward to discussing those as well," he said in response to questions of whether or not Taiwan would be discussed.

Holbrooke, a top foreign policy troubleshooter, is scheduled to hold meetings with the architect of China's foreign policy Vice Premier Qian Qichen and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan on Tuesday.

On Sunday in Shanghai, Holbrooke had a dinner meeting with Shanghai mayor Xu Kuangdi in which the two discussed China's economic reform and the Taiwan elections, diplomatic sources in Beijing said.ÑAFP