WASHINGTON, March 15: With the US decision not to back an anti-China resolution on human rights issue and President Bill Clinton's move to advance his trip to the Communist nation, relations between both big powers seem to be warming further after recent glitches over the Iraqi crisis' handling.A push to censure Beijing, born in the Tiananmen Square crackdown, is being set aside as the US pursues engagement with China on human rights, diplomacy and business. The White House said on Saturday it will neither propose nor support a resolution in the United Nations this year that criticises China's human rights record. Fractured European unity had already made that perennial effort almost futile. ``We have taken note of a number of positive developments in the human rights situation in China,'' White House spokesman Eric Rubin said. These included Beijing's recent agreement to sign an international human rights covenant and its release of several dissidents.Clinton made it clear earlier that a process toopen China's lucrative nuclear technology market to US business would not be sidetracked by discovery of secret talks that could have resulted in China's sale to Iran of a chemical used in nuclear weapons development.The talks were stopped after US intelligence found out about them. ``We followed through on it,'' Clinton said. ``The Chinese followed through on it and kept their agreement to the letter.''Clinton has moved ahead by several months his planned trip to China to capitalise on what he says is a receptive climate for improved freedoms. He plans to go in late June, shortly after the ninth anniversary of Tiananmen Square, when authorities killed unarmed pro-democracy demonstrators.The 15-nation European Union also has backed off trying to get the Human Rights Commission to censure China. Amnesty International said the position was taken because of trade, not human rights. France, a main opponent of the rights resolution, is trying to sell airbuses to China.That view was echoed by Pelosi,long an advocate of a tougher US line.``The policy is so dominated by money that everything else, including our national security, our values when it comes to human rights. is secondary,'' she said. Rubin said the administration's move away from a resolution reflects China's agreement to sign the covenant on human rights and accept the UN missions that would be involved, among other progress.
