tech arms to China's rapidly modernizing People's Liberation Army, the world's largest military by troop numbers, could increase its abilities to threaten U.S. allies in Asia, including Japan and Taiwan. Responding to such concerns, the EU is beefing up a code of conduct to govern eventual arms sales to China by the bloc's 25 member states. In their draft statement, EU leaders welcomed «progress» made on revising the guidelines and said the EU should «continue its work on that basis.» But there was no indication on when the embargo might be lifted. France, hoping to further its commercial ties with China, has led calls to lift the embargo. The French say the ban is outdated and obstructs Europe's ambitions to build closer ties with Beijing. But there is no agreement within Europe on whether the ban should go. Some argue China must first make progress on human rights issues. EU leaders also have European problems to tackle first: Their two-day summit here was dominated by budget battles and discussions on how to salvage the EU's proposed constitution. --More 1426 Local Time 1126 GMT
