Washington, July 17 (CNA) The United States will not prescribe or mediate any solutions to the question of reunification between Taiwan and mainland China, Winston Lord, US assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said Wednesday.

Fielding questions at his first press briefing with the foreign media after returning from a trip to Asia with White House national security adviser Anthony Lake, Lord said Taiwan's future must be worked out between Taipei and Beijing.

However, he stressed that the United States continues to insist that the resolution of the issue be peaceful.

Asked to comment on speculations about why Lake and he cancelled a planned visit to Shanghai, where they were scheduled to meet with the Shanghai mayor and a senior communist Chinese official in charge of relations with Taiwan, Lord said the visit had been cancelled because of "terrible weather."

He explained that the US delegtion used a military aircraft of the United States within the theater after flying to Asia on a commercial flight. The military maintained strict rules about safety, and were more sensitive about weather conditions than before after the April 3 air crash in Croatia that killed Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown.

"The military and we fully agreed with their decision, of course said we could no fly in that weather. And therefore, to our chagrin, we could not go to Shanghai. That is the only reason. We, therefore, had to go to Thailand," Lord said.

The former US ambassador to mainland China said that while in Beijing, the US delegation did encourage the communsit Chinese leadership to resume dialogue with Taipei and try to make progress on the issues between the two sides of the Taiwan Straits.

"I will not say that there was any concrete progress on our trip. One would not expect that. The progress has to be made between Taiwan and Beijing," he said.

Lord also reiterated that the United States does not support membership for Taiwan in the United Nations or any other organization whose membership requires statehood, because such membership will not be consistent with America's "one-China" policy.

"Anything that Taiwan and Beijing can work out with respect to the UN and agree upon, we of course would support and welcome," he added. (Han Nai-kuo)