Missile plan clouds China talks

China sees the US missile shield as a threat to its interests

Senior US arms control negotiators have begun two days of talks in Beijing aimed at re-opening a dialogue between the US and China on sensitive arms control issues.

A previous dialogue was cut off by China more than a year ago after Nato warplanes bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict.

Relations soured after the bombing of the Belgrade embassy

The current talks are likely to be dominated by the US Government's controversial plan to build a national missile defence system.

The National Missile Defence (NMD) and Theatre Missile Defence (TMD) systems are aimed at defending the US against in-coming missiles.

'Rogue' states

The US says it is designed against attack by states like North Korea and Iran, but China, with a small nuclear arsenal of only 20 long-range missiles, is adamantly opposed to it.

The system would aim to put Taiwan in a sphere of protection. This would be blatant interference in Chinese affairs

Chinese premier Zhu Rongji

On Thursday, Prime Minister Zhu Rongji angrily attacked both US anti-ballistic missile schemes.

"China is categorically opposed to the TMD system," Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji told a news conference in Rome.

"The system would aim to put Taiwan in a sphere of protection. This would be blatant interference in Chinese affairs," Mr Zhu said, speaking after talks in Italy.

Earlier in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said the US plans would be a step in the wrong direction.

Nevertheless, the US was going ahead with its plans to test the missile defence system on Friday night.

The outcome of the test - the third following one successful and one failed test - will be crucial in determining President Clinton's final decision on whether to go ahead with the construction of the $60bn system.

In the test, a missile armed with a dummy warhead, is to be fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base over the Pacific, while another missile will be fired from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, 8,000 km (5,000 miles) away, in an attempt to intercept it.

The missile defence controversy is the latest in a series of frictions to arise in US-China relations.

Nobel scientists' warning

China broke off military ties with Washington last year after a US B-2 stealth bomber accidentally struck the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, killing three people, during Nato's air campaign against Yugoslavia.

The bombing, depicted in China's official media as deliberate, heightened Chinese fears that Kosovo had set a precedent for future US military intervention in conflicts in the Taiwan Strait or the South China Sea.

US Defence Secretary William Cohen heads to China next week for a four-day visit that is meant to demonstrate that US-Chinese military relations are back on track.

Meanwhile, a group of 50 American Nobel prize laureates warned President Clinton that an anti-missile system would be premature, wasteful and dangerous.

In an open letter, the scientists say that the national missile defence shield would offer little protection and do grave harm to the nation's security interests by sparking a dangerous arms race.

Environment campaigners Greenpeace, which fears the test could damage existing arms control agreements and spark a new arms race, has sent its ship MV Arctic Sunrise into waters off California that the air force has declared a hazard zone during the test.