China urges diplomacy in Iran, North Korea nuke rows

A mock scud missile (top) and South Korean missiles are displayed at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul July 4, 2009.

GENEVA (Reuters) - China stuck to its "hands-off" line for resolving international disputes on Wednesday, calling for diplomatic approaches and respect of sovereignty in hotspots from Myanmar to Iran and North Korea.

In Beijing the government responded to Myanmar's sentencing of democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi to further detention by calling on the world to respect Myanmar's judicial sovereignty.

And in Geneva, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi urged the international community to deal with any efforts by Iran and North Korea to acquire nuclear weapons through peaceful diplomatic means.

"We maintain that all countries, big and small, strong and weak, rich and poor, are equal, and we respect the right of people of all countries to independently choose their own development path," Yang said in a speech at the Geneva School of Diplomacy after receiving an honorary degree.

China's own record on human rights and its policies in Tibet often attract criticism from western countries that Beijing rejects as unwarranted interference in its own affairs, and it promotes a similar approach for other countries.

Western nations want the United Nations Security Council to condemn Myanmar's sentencing of Suu Kyi, but China and Russia among others are stalling for time.

Some people in the United States and Israel have also called for a military attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear energy program for fear it will allow Tehran to build nuclear weapons.

North Korea is already under tougher U.N. sanctions after a second nuclear test in May.

POLITICAL AND DIPLOMATIC MEANS

"It is important to resolve proliferation issues through political and diplomatic means and eradicate the root causes of nuclear weapon proliferation," Yang said in an earlier speech to the U.N.-sponsored Conference on Disarmament in Geneva.

Yang said Beijing was ready to work with others to promote the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and settle Iran's nuclear issue "with a view to safeguarding the international non-proliferation regime and maintaining regional peace and stability."

In his speech to the diplomacy school, Yang touched on Darfur, another conflict where some in the West urge tougher international intervention to end the humanitarian catastrophe.

Yang said China supported parallel efforts to resolve Darfur through politics while deploying peacekeepers, and urged the factions in Sudan's troubled western region to negotiate and agree a peace deal soon.

His speech to the disarmament conference toughed on a wide range of arms issues, including China's call for a global treaty banning the use of weapons in outer space and a complete ban on nuclear weapons.

But the focus was on using the conference to strengthen the regime for the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

John Duncan, Britain's ambassador to the conference, described Yang's speech as a "measured and modern approach to disarmament" in a "Tweet" on the social networking service Twitter.

The 65-nation conference is the world's only multilateral disarmament forum. Its members include the five official nuclear weapon powers -- China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States -- as well as nuclear-capable India and Pakistan, and Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arms.

(Editing by Stephanie Nebehay)