"The Age" & "The Sydney Morning Herald", Saturday, 8 March

By David Lague, Beijing correspodent

The expected failure of a United Nations move to condemn Chinese human rights abuses will allow the Australian Government to escape another clash with Beijing before the Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, visits China this month.

The Government is confident that the failure of key Western nations to agree on a Human Rights Commission resolution condemning Beijing will allow it to avoid antagonising China at a time when it is working hard to repair the troubled relationship.

However, senior Australian officials have confirmed that the Howard Government is prepared to withhold support if there is last-minute agreement at the commission's annual meeting in Geneva between 10 March and 18 April.

Australia has previously co-sponsored resolutions attacking China but the Government's senior foreign policy advisers believe this has failed to curb human rights abuses while infuriating a key trading partner.

China's Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Qian Qichen, said on Thursday that the United States and the European Union had failed in tabling an "anti-China" resolution in Geneva for six years.

"If they insist on doing the same again this year I don't see any different outcome," he said.

The minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade in the Senate, Senator Robert Hill, said this week that Australia had yet to decide if it would support a resolution.

"Our co-sponsorship of resolutions is not automatic," he said. "We base our decision on a careful assessment of the text of the resolution and the human rights situation of the country in question."

The Government has bent over backwards to avoid angering Beijing since the Prime Minister met Chinese President Jiang Zemin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in the Phillipines late last year.

Australia has dropped its outspoken support for Britain's democratic reforms in Hong Kong and remained silent when China announced it would curb civil liberties after the British leave on 1 July.

Mr Howard also refused to hold formal talks with Hong Kong's senior elected politician when he visited earlier this year.

Mr Qian Qichen yesterday was cool in his assessment of Australia's ties but said he hoped Mr Howard's visit was a success.

"After going through some twists and turns, the ... relationship is now faced with a good opportunity," he said.