By Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-17 07:42

China will not participate in a multilateral meeting aimed at discussing the Iranian nuclear issue, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in Berlin today, is a gathering of senior officials from the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.

Liu said Beijing's absence is due to technical reasons, adding its position on Teheran's nuclear issue had not changed.

Myanmar issue

Referring to UN envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari's current Asian trip, Liu said China welcomed Gambari's forthcoming visit to exchange views on the issue.

Gambari, dispatched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, has already traveled to Thailand and Malaysia and is to head to India, China and Japan.

Liu also announced that President Oscar Arias of Costa Rica would pay a weeklong visit to China from Monday. The two countries established diplomatic ties in June.

Japanese held

Procurators in the northeastern city Shenyang have arrested a Japanese man in connection with illegal organ transplants, Liu said.

The suspect's name is Nagase Hiroyuki, a legal representative for a Japanese-invested information and consultation company in Shenyang of Northeast China's Liaoning Province.

Under the name of "China International Transplantation Network Assistance Center", the company first released information on the Internet in 2004 offering organ transplant services for Japanese customers.

Liu said such an activity was beyond the company's scope and had broken Ministry of Health rules.

China implemented a regulation on organ transplants in May with provisions to prohibit the organ business and to respect donor wishes.

Liu said the case was under further investigation.

Attack in Ukraine

Liu also said three female Chinese students who were attacked by unidentified gangsters with knives in the capital city Kiev of Ukraine are no longer in critical condition.

The incident took place late Sunday.

The foreign ministry had paid high attention to it, urging the Ukrainian side to take effective measures to ensure the safety of Chinese students, the spokesman said.