By Qin Jize (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-11-23 07:21

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi will attend the US-sponsored Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, next week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced Thursday.

China hopes the two-day meeting that starts on Monday achieves substantive and positive results and helps enhance contacts among the participants, including Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

"We will work together with other parties to discuss ways to push forward the peace process in the Middle East and hope the issue is fully and fairly solved with the help of the international community at an early date," Liu said.

European leaders

The presidents of Eurogroup and the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Juncker and Jean-Claude Trichet, and European Union Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Joaquin Almunia will be in Beijing on Tuesday. They have been invited by the People's Bank of China to discuss China-EU economic and financial cooperation.

Dalai Lama's remarks

Reacting to reports that the Dalai Lama is considering naming his successor before his death, Liu said such remarks obviously violate religious rituals and historic conventions.

The Chinese government believes in religious freedom and respects the religious rituals and historic conventions of Tibetan Buddhism. The recently released regulations on the management of reincarnations of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism furthers that belief.