BEIJING is seeking to buy an aircraft carrier from Russia in spite of the failure of earlier efforts to get a similar vessel from Ukraine.
According to today's edition of the Far Eastern Economic Review, Chinese leaders expressed an interest in buying one of the Russian navy's two Kiev-class aircraft carriers during President Mr Boris Yeltsin's visit to the Chinese capital in December.
The Review reported that the 38,000-tonne Kiev-class carrier had been retired last year because of cuts in Russia's military expenditure.
Diplomatic sources said while Chinese efforts to procure the vessel were still at a preliminary stage, they might be more successful than the failed attempts to buy the 67,000-tonne carrier Varyag from Ukraine.
The sources said since the Kiev-class was smaller than the Varyag and had been in service for about five months, it should be substantially cheaper than the Ukrainian model.
They added since the Ukrainians and the Chinese had failed to agree on a price, the former had indefinitely shelved the construction of the half-built Varyag.