China and the European Union both favour a diplomatic solution to the problem of Iran's nuclear programme, the two powers' representatives said in Brussels on Wednesday, just hours after US President George W Bush warned that "all options" were possible, reported dpa.
"China is for safeguarding the non-proliferation regime and maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East ... The Iranian nuclear issue should be solved peacefully through diplomatic channels," China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said after talks with EU foreign-policy supremo Javier Solana.
"For us, it is very important that the nuclear issue be solved so that the international community has objective guarantees of the nature of the nuclear programme of Iran ... We have the same point of view between China and the EU," Solana said.
Solana negotiates with Iran over its nuclear programme on behalf of the six-nation group of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States. He is set to travel to Tehran this weekend, for first time since 2006.
He is expected to offer an updated package of proposals from the international community, inviting Tehran to negotiate on a range of issues, including peaceful nuclear power, on condition that it suspend its controversial uranium enrichment programme, which some states fear could be intended for military use.
Earlier on Wednesday, at a meeting in Germany, Bush said that "all options" were open if Iran refused to suspend enrichment.
Yang's visit to Brussels was his first in his capacity as foreign minister.
Both diplomats stressed the positive nature of the relationship between the EU and China, saying that recent EU aid to victims of May's devastating earthquake in China was a mark of the friendship between the two powers.