China on Tuesday urged the European Union to lift its 15-year-old arms embargo against Beijing, rejecting any link between such restrictions and its human rights record. The arms embargo and friction over China's mounting textile exports to the EU are likely to dominate the agenda during a visit due to begin Wednesday by Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, which holds the rotating EU presidency, AP said. The weapons embargo was imposed after Beijing's violent crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 1989, and China has spent billions of dollars since then on Russian and other foreign weapons technology. Asselborn said last week during a visit to Japan that lifting the embargo would bring with it a code of conduct requiring China to comply with stricter standards on arm sales, human rights and other issues. Beijing apparently disagrees. --More 1431 Local Time 1131 GMT
