Still no EU concensus on lifting China arms embargo

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   Still no EU concensus on lifting China arms embargo: British FM

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LONDON (AFP) Jun 30, 2005
The EU has still not agreed on lifting its arms embargo on China and some member states have expressed concern about Beijing's human rights record, Britain's foreign minister said Thursday. 
"My guess is that there is still no concensus," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told reporters, the day before Britain takes over the European Union's rotating presidency for six months. 
"Part of the difficulty is that since the matter first went on the agenda ... there has been more concern expressed on the continent of Europe about human rights in China and about tension across the straits to Taiwan," he said. 
European leaders, in an initiative led by France and Germany, agreed in December to draft an accord on scrapping the embargo imposed ater the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy students in Beijing. 
But the move lost steam amid fierce opposition from the United States and China's controversial move to pass a law that could open the way for a military takeover of Taiwan. 

By CHINA.WIRE