Chinese foreign minister in Lebanon

Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen arrived in Beirut on Thursday night for two days of talks at the start of a Middle East tour, Xinhua news agency reported from Beirut.

He is to discuss bilateral issues and developments in the Middle East peace process with President Ilyas al-Hirawi, Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri and other officials.

Qian issued a statement on arrival saying would be no complete, just and lasting peace in the Middle East without the participation of Lebanon and a settlement of the Lebanon issue.

His tour will take him on to Syria, Israel, the Palestinian self-rule area and Egypt, the agency said.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.