He told Annan in a phone call that the UN post was hit inadvertently.
"It's inconceivable for the UN to define an error as an apparently deliberate
action," Olmert said.
Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun summoned Israeli Ambassador Yehoyada Haim
yesterday morning and told him that "China...urges Israel to thoroughly
investigate the event and apologize to China and the victim's families, and
co-ordinate with China to deal with the aftermath."
Haim offered Israel's apology, pledging that a thorough investigation would
be held at an early date.
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Wang Guangya yesterday called UN Deputy
Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, and asked the UN to require Israel to take
every measure to ensure the security of UN peacekeepers, including those from
China, and investigate the event.
Israel has intensified air raids on Lebanese targets since launching a
massive assault on July 12 when Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli
soldiers and killed eight in cross-border attacks.
About 420 Lebanese and 42 Israelis have been killed in the two-week violence.
Chinese contribution to UN peacekeeping missions
The Chinese victim, Du Zhaoyu, was a lieutenant-colonel in the People's
Liberation Army and had a postgraduate degree. He was sent to Lebanon in January
as one of three Chinese UN observers.
Du was previously the secretary to the military attache in the Chinese
Embassy in India.
He was born in Jinan, capital of East China's Shandong Province; and was the
father of a 1-year-old son.
An 182-member Chinese engineering battalion, including a mine-sweeping
company, an engineering company, a logistics company and a field hospital,
started its peacekeeping mission in Lebanon in late March this year.
There are nearly 2,000 peacekeepers with UNIFIL, which began its mission in
1978 following UN resolutions.
