960411

China, France sign

more trade deals

PARIS: Chinese Premier Li Peng and French President Jacques Chirac clinched further trade deals Thursday, despite angry protests and high-level disagreement over human rights.

On the second full day of Li's controversial visit to France, the two men attended the signing of a letter of intent for a Sino-European partnership in a project to develop a 100-seater plane.

This came after deals worth nearly 10 billion francs (two billion dollars) were signed on Wednesday, including a 1.5-billion dollar contract for the European consortium Airbus Industrie for European-built aircraft.

Li insisted on Thursday that his trip was going well. "So far (my) visit to France has gone well," he said, after a meeting with Foreign Minister Herve de Charette.

"Europe is wise. It is beginning to turn itself towards Asia and its huge population and ever developing economy," French foreign ministry spokesman Yves Doutriaux quoted him as saying.

However, opposition deputies, human rights activists, trade unions, ecologists and dissidents were vigorously protesting the visit of Li, whom they blame for the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989, and they have slammed the French government for sacrificing rights to business.

In the latest incident, some 18 protestors invaded a cultural centre run by the Chinese embassy in Paris on Thursday.

Ninety riot police were deployed to evacuate militants, who shouted slogans denouncing China's human record and its threats against Taiwan, and calling for the independence of Tibet but the protestors were persuaded to leave without incident.-AFP