Syrian President Bashar al-Assad discussed the Palestinian uprising with a senior visiting Chinese envoy Sunday, and called for international pressure to stop Israel's "carnage," a government spokesman said.
Assad told Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ji Peiding the international community needed "to put pressure on Israel to put an end to Israeli carnage against the Palestinians," said presidential spokesman Gebran Kourieh.
Ji "denounced for his part Israel's use of heavy weapons against the Palestinians" and said UN resolutions calling for Israel's withdrawal of land captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war "need to be applied to achieve peace in the Middle East," according to Kourieh.
China, which traditionally has had warm relations with Arab countries, and to a lesser extent Israel, on Tuesday called for both the Israelis and Palestinians to show restraint in their conflict.
The fighting which erupted on September 28 has so far killed 145 people -- the vast majority of them Arabs.
Assad also accepted an invitation from Chinese President Jiang Zemin to visit Beijing, although no dates have been set.
Last week, China and Syria agreed to boost their trade after a visit to Damascus by a Chinese delegation.
The delegation also announced Beijing would accord Syria a six-million-dollar loan for economic and technical assistance -- DAMASCUS (AFP)
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