Manila sends special envoy to Beijing over sea dispute

Philippine President Benigno Aquino will send a "special envoy" to China in an effort to meet the nation's presumed next leader for talks over the South China Sea dispute, his spokesman said yesterday.

Interior Secretary Mar Roxas would lead a delegation to a five-day trade expo in Nanning starting today, which Vice-President Xi Jinping was also set to attend, spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

"We are hoping that we are able to meet with the vice-president," Lacierda said. The foreign department was arranging the meeting, he said.

The latest effort for top-level talks comes after Aquino failed to secure a meeting with President Hu Jintao at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum in Russia this month.

Aquino had hoped to discuss with Hu the countries' competing claims in the South China Sea but a tentative meeting did not happen. "The president has given his approval to Secretary Roxas to relay to the [Chinese] vice-president what President Aquino wanted to relay to President Hu Jintao," Lacierda said.

Xi is widely expected to succeed Hu as leader of the Communist Party at the upcoming national congress, then take over as president in March next year.