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SCMP Reporter

THE Chinese Foreign Ministry yesterday warned Britain not to raise new issues in the talks with China.

  The warning was contained in a statement issued yesterday after a meeting between the British Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, and the Chinese Ambassador to Britain, Ma Yuzhen.

  China maintained its position of excluding the voting method for the 1995 Legislative Council elections from discussions on polls for the district boards and municipal councils.

  The statement said Britain should know why progress in last week's 16th round of talks had been slow.

  China hoped that Britain would adopt a reasonable attitude and not put forward unreasonable requests, the statement added.

  The Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, Wang Qiren, yesterday told a Hong Kong delegation that Britain had blocked progress on the less contentious issues by putting forward more controversial ones.

  Emerging from a meeting with Mr Wang, Lui Ming-wah, leading a delegation from the electronics industry, quoted the deputy director as saying that China would like to see progress in the next round of talks, which are due to begin tomorrow.

  Mr Wang told them that China hoped that both sides could show sincerity to reach agreement in accordance with the three principles.

  It is understood that Mr Wang told the delegation that Britain had put forward some ideas based on Governor Chris Patten's proposals in the last round of negotiations.

  Since that round had been expected to focus on less contentious issues, Mr Wang criticised Britain for ''jumping the gun'' by raising the more difficult issues, which should be discussed in the forthcoming round.

  Mr Wang said that China had made important concessions in the talks, but given an inch, Britain had tried to take a yard.

  He said it was improper to put any resolution from Legco forward for discussion in the talks, which was a matter between China and Britain.

  In the last round of talks, China maintained that only the less contentious issues relating to polls for the district boards and municipal councils - lowering the voting age to 18, abolishing some appointed seats and the single-vote, single-seat system -could be discussed.

  But Britain insisted that the single-vote, single-seat system should also apply to the Legco polls.

  The chairman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, Tsang Yok-sing, said China had not totally rejected the idea of the single-vote, single-seat system for Legco. He said China was looking into several options regarding the voting method for Legco.

  Executive Councillor Professor Edward Chen Kwan-yiu said Mr Hurd had summoned Mr Ma because time was running out for an agreement.

  Noting that there would be two breaks in Legco, in December and February, Professor Chen said the British side should take stock of the situation after the 17th round of talks.



UK warned not to raise new issues