Sarkozy seeks to bury hatchet with China

CHINA: French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in Beijing on Wednesday for a visit aimed at reinvigorating ties tested two years ago over Tibet and at winning China’s support for new sanctions against Iran.

The French President, making his second state visit to China, was to head straight into a meeting with his opposite number Hu Jintao and address the media to kick off the official part of his three-day trip.

Sarkozy - along with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and a delegation of top Ministers - began the day with an initial stop in the ancient capital of Xian, where the couple visited the famed terracotta warriors under tight security.

The French leader will also meet Premier Wen Jiabao and other top officials during his time in Beijing before heading to Shanghai on Friday for the start of the World Expo. “China has become an absolutely indispensable actor on the world stage,” Sarkozy told China’s state Xinhua news agency in an interview published Wednesday.

“Today, there is not one major issue that we can handle without you.”

Paris hopes to win China’s support for fresh UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, but first Sarkozy has to seal France’s reconciliation with Beijing, two years after a heated row over Tibet.

In March 2008, just four months after Sarkozy’s first state visit to China, ties soured when the French leader expressed shock at the security crackdown in the Chinese-ruled region after protests there led to deadly violence.

A month later, the Chinese leadership was incensed when pro-Tibetan demonstrators booed and jostled the Olympic flame as it was carried through Paris on its way to the Beijing Games. Beijing, AFP