BEIJING — Chinese President Jiang Zemin gently urged Palestinian President Yasser Arafat on Tuesday to choose an appropriate time to declare statehood after Arafat lobbied Beijing for support for a plan to declare an independent state.
Arafat met Jiang in the northeastern coastal resort of Beidaihe after flying into Beijing on Monday morning from Pakistan, state media said.
China's top brass is gathered in Beidaihe for its annual policy-setting conclave.
"We believe that the Palestinian National Authority led by Arafat will think it over and declare statehood at an appropriate time to achieve the best possible results," state media quoted Jiang as saying.
Arafat's visit came two days before Israel's Shimon Peres arrives in China to present his side of the story as the Israelis and Palestinians battle for Beijing's support ahead of a Sept. 13 deadline for a draft peace accord.
Negotiations between Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David in the United States collapsed in July due to differences over the status of Jerusalem.
Arafat has vowed to declare an independent state after the deadline with or without a peace deal, but analysts say he has struggled to drum up support during a whirlwind tour of 18 countries in less than three weeks.
And China is unwilling to offer explicit backing as it tries to maintain a diplomatic balance between the two, analysts say.
"China has always been very balanced and we are very happy with that," said a Beijing-based diplomat.
"Any kind of unilateral action or declarations will only jeopardise the peace and not help it."
China would continue to work with the international community for a long-term settlement of the Palestinian issue, Xinhua said.
China has raised its profile in the Middle East this year, repeatedly urging the two sides to follow the principle of "land for peace" and calling on the international community to help them resolve their differences.
In April, Jiang became the first Chinese head of state to visit Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Arafat even asked Jiang on that visit to appoint a permanent envoy to the Middle East peace process, although Chinese state media has reported no such appointment.
China, one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council along with Britain, France, Russia and the United States, has yet to bring any new initiatives to the negotiating process, analysts say.
"China's basically saying because it's a P5 member, because it's an important global player and because it's an important global issue, they have to be up to speed on it," said one Western diplomat.
"They think the Americans have got their noses in on everything and they want to know what they're doing," he said. "There may be some small geopolitical favours they can gain but there's no pot of gold at the end of this particular rainbow."
Ties with Israel have burgeoned with the Jewish state's sale of tens of millions of dollars of military hardware to Beijing.
But Chinese support for the Palestinians dates back to 1963 when Arafat met Chairman Mao Zedong and received weapons. In 1988, China was among more than 100 countries which recognised Arafat's declaration in Algiers of an independent state.
Arafat arrived in Beijing from Pakistan, where he told reporters that Pakistan leader General Pervez Musharraf had renewed his country's support for the Palestinian cause.
"I thank the Pakistani nation and government to continue support to the Palestinian cause. Pakistan supports Jerusalem as capital of the independent Palestinian state," Xinhua quoted Arafat as saying.
Palestinian officials in Beijing were not immediately available and the Israeli embassy declined to comment.
Palestinians want to create a state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967 in a move not recognised internationally.
A senior Palestinian official said on Saturday the Israelis and Palestinians would resume peace talks at the end of August.
Arafat was due to make a brief stop in Vietnam on Tuesday, according to officials in Hanoi. He is also expected to visit Japan and Indonesia on his Asian tour.