China has welcomed the appointment of Ambassador Ashraf Jehangir Qazi as new special representative of United Nations Secretary General in Iraq.
"We hope the new special representative to Iraq will be helpful to reconstruction of the war-torn country," said Chinese office spokesperson Zhang Qiyue at the weekly news briefing.
China, she said, had always been concerned about the situation in Iraq and hoped the Iraqi Interim government, with the help of the international community, would soon stabilise the security situation and push forward the process of the political transition.
Zhang said, "We are glad Kofi Annan has selected Pakistani Ambassador to Washington Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, who had also served in China as his new special representative for Iraq.
Commenting on the recent visit of Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat to China, Zhang said, "The visit was very successful and it yielded positive results to further enhance bilateral co-operation to fight terrorism."
During the visit, the two sides held very useful talks to strengthen their co-operation in the area of bilateral interest, she said, adding it was decided the security departments of the two countries would maintain regular contact for exchange of relevant information.
The spokesperson further said Pakistan and China wanted to strengthen their co-operation to control the terrorist activities and to address the root cause of terrorism. That co-operation, she said was also a part of international campaign against terrorism. The two sides had identified specific areas of bilateral co-operation to make the ongoing campaign against terrorism more effective, said another Chinese official.
Talking to newsmen, he said the relevant agencies of the two countries would be in contact to monitor and control the activities of the terrorist groups in their respective territory, inside and around the border area.
A joint working group of the two countries will meet by end of this month in Islamabad to further review the security arrangements.
A Chinese delegation, led by vice-Minister for Public Security, will visit Pakistan to attend the meeting.
In an interview, the official said Pakistan and China were working together to increase economic co-operation. The recent terrorist attack against the Chinese technicians at Gwadar would not lessen Beijing's resolve to help Islamabad develop the deep-sea port and to take part in other development activities, he added.
British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw on Wednesday welcomed the appointment of Pakistan's ambassador to Washington Ashraf Jehangir Qazi's as the new UN Special Representative for Iraq.
"I am delighted that the UN have appointed Ambassador Qazi to take on this important role. The British Government will extend all its support to Qazi, the UN and the Iraqi people in implementing this process," he said in a statement according to the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office sources here.
Straw said the UN, under the leadership of Lakhdar Brahimi, had made a very positive impact on the political process in Iraq and it was under their guidance that the Interim Iraqi Government took office and the timetable for future elections in Iraq was agreed".
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