Jiang warns path to China modernization "long and arduous"

President Jiang Zemin said in Beijing on Thursday that China had a long and arduous task ahead of it in modernizing the country.

Xinhua news agency said Jiang told a new year tea party that a series of high-level visits in 1997 resulted in China setting guidelines for its relations in the 21st century with major political powers such as the United States, Russia, France and Japan.

China's good-neighbourly relations with neighbouring countries had also been strengthened in 1997.

But, the agency said, Jiang issued a warning: "We must see clearly that as international competition is getting increasingly fierce, there remains a long way to go in accomplishing the arduous task of modernization in a country with a huge population of 1.2 billion."

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.