(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-12-04 16:48

BEIJING -- China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held a round of telephone diplomacy with EU and US counterparts, his ministry said Tuesday, after a US report stated Iran had halted its nuclear weapons drive.

Yang held talks with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana late Monday and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice early Tuesday, the ministry said in a statement on its website.

China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, seen here, held a round of telephone diplomacy with EU and US counterparts, his ministry said Tuesday, after a US report stated Iran had halted its nuclear weapons drive. [Agenices]

"The Chinese side is willing to continue to make efforts to appropriately resolve the Iranian nuclear issue," the statement quoted Yang as telling Solana in the late-night telephone call.

In a report released Monday, the US National Intelligence Estimate said Iran halted its nuclear weapons drive in 2003 and indicated that US charges about Tehran's atomic goals have been overblown for at least two years.

During the discussions, Solana also briefed Yang on his recent talks with Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, the statement said.

In a Tuesday morning call to Rice, Yang "exchanged views on the Iranian nuclear issue," it added, without going into details.

China has long maintained that sanctions on Iran are not productive to resolving the row over whether Tehran is seeking to develop atomic weapons.

Beijing has also insisted that Iran should be allowed to develop peaceful uses of nuclear technology under the oversight of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Chinese foreign ministry did not immediately reply Tuesday morning to requests for a comment on the US intelligence report.