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As the Middle East peace process is entering a crucial stage, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi’s ongoing tour of the region is sending a message that China advocates better cooperation and coordination among all parties concerned to push forward Mideast peace.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has adhered to a just and impartial stand in its vigorous efforts to promote dialogue and reconciliation between the parties concerned.

In his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the Chinese foreign minister urged Israel and Arab countries to treasure what they have achieved through long years of hard negotiations and stick to the right direction of peace talks in their joint efforts to push forward the peace process.

Yang reiterated China’s readiness to help with the dialogue between Israel and Arabic countries, enhance their mutual trust, and play a constructive role in facilitating Israel-Arab peace talks and contribute to the early and fair resolution of the Middle East issues.

The Palestinian issue is at the core of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The Mideast peace process has undergone twists and turns since the 1991 Mideast peace conference in Madrid. History has proven that resorting to force cannot solve the conflicts in the region and peace is the general trend independent of people’s will no matter what difficulties and setbacks there will be.

China is committed to boosting the Mideast peace process, and advocates and supports efforts to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict through political talks on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, the principle of land for peace, the Arab Peace Initiative and Middle East roadmap.

When meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit on Tuesday, Yang said China supports the two-state solution and regards it as the only way out for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In November 2007 at the international peace conference in Annapolis, the United States, Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowed to resume their peace talks to reach an extensive peace deal and form an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in real peace and security.

The two-state resolution, however, is still bogged down over some major problems such as the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.

The political settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict is impossible without the concerted efforts of the international community. Yang said in his talks with Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday that China is ready, along with the international community, to help the Palestinians realize their goal of nation building at an early date and push the Middle East peace process forward through unremitting efforts.

He also urged the international community to offer strong support to efforts to strengthen the unity among the Palestinians and promote economic growth on the Palestinian territories.

China has always played close attention to peace and development in the Middle East and believes that economic growth and political process in Palestine are closely linked and supplement each other. China has offered economic assistance in various forms to Palestinian territories to help improve people’s life and promote the territories’ social-economic development.

Lasting peace and stability is not only in the fundamental interest of the Middle East countries, but also conducive to world peace and prosperity. China will continue, together with the rest of the international community, to enhance communication and coordination among parties concerned and play a constructive role in achieving peace in the region at an early date.

As the Middle East peace process is entering a crucial stage, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi’s ongoing tour of the region is sending a message that China advocates better cooperation and coordination among all parties concerned to push forward Mideast peace.

China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, has adhered to a just and impartial stand in its vigorous efforts to promote dialogue and reconciliation between the parties concerned.

In his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, the Chinese foreign minister urged Israel and Arab countries to treasure what they have achieved through long years of hard negotiations and stick to the right direction of peace talks in their joint efforts to push forward the peace process.

Yang reiterated China’s readiness to help with the dialogue between Israel and Arabic countries, enhance their mutual trust, and play a constructive role in facilitating Israel-Arab peace talks and contribute to the early and fair resolution of the Middle East issues.

The Palestinian issue is at the core of the Israeli-Arab conflict. The Mideast peace process has undergone twists and turns since the 1991 Mideast peace conference in Madrid. History has proven that resorting to force cannot solve the conflicts in the region and peace is the general trend independent of people’s will no matter what difficulties and setbacks there will be.

China is committed to boosting the Mideast peace process, and advocates and supports efforts to solve the Israel-Palestine conflict through political talks on the basis of relevant UN resolutions, the principle of land for peace, the Arab Peace Initiative and Middle East roadmap.

When meeting with his Egyptian counterpart Ahmed Abul Gheit on Tuesday, Yang said China supports the two-state solution and regards it as the only way out for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

In November 2007 at the international peace conference in Annapolis, the United States, Israeli and Palestinian leaders vowed to resume their peace talks to reach an extensive peace deal and form an independent Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in real peace and security.

The two-state resolution, however, is still bogged down over some major problems such as the status of Jerusalem and the return of Palestinian refugees.

The political settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict is impossible without the concerted efforts of the international community. Yang said in his talks with Palestinian National Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas Wednesday that China is ready, along with the international community, to help the Palestinians realize their goal of nation building at an early date and push the Middle East peace process forward through unremitting efforts.

He also urged the international community to offer strong support to efforts to strengthen the unity among the Palestinians and promote economic growth on the Palestinian territories.

China has always played close attention to peace and development in the Middle East and believes that economic growth and political process in Palestine are closely linked and supplement each other. China has offered economic assistance in various forms to Palestinian territories to help improve people’s life and promote the territories’ social-economic development.

Lasting peace and stability is not only in the fundamental interest of the Middle East countries, but also conducive to world peace and prosperity. China will continue, together with the rest of the international community, to enhance communication and coordination among parties concerned and play a constructive role in achieving peace in the region at an early date.

Asian nations recently reached an initial agreement on the establishment of a foreign-exchange reserve pool by year-end to revive investor confidence as economies around the region falter amid the worst global economic recession since World War II.

Japan, Asia’s largest economy, will contribute $38.4 billion, 32 percent of the total reserve while the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong together will add a matching amount. South Korea’s share will be $19.2 billion, or 16 percent. The Southeast Asian nations will contribute 20 percent of the total amount. The regional contingency fund will be used in times of turmoil, according to the May 3 agreement. A surveillance unit is to be set up to identify risks to the region and provide oversight of the $120 billion foreign reserve fund.

Undoubtedly, the establishment of the first Asian foreign reserve pool in history will produce a range of positive effects on the flagging regional economy against the backdrop of the global economic recession.

The establishment of the fund is expected to improve the capability of Asian countries to tackle the ongoing crisis and contribute noticeably to financial stability in the region. With such a blood pool-alike reserve fund in the right place, timely financial assistance can be offered to any crisis-stricken economy and help it to survive a breakdown.

At the time of the Asian financial crisis in 1997, Asian countries had no choice but to turn to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for financial support although the body prescribed a series of tough preconditions for assistance. The IMF, largely dominated by the US and other Western powers, arranged more than $100 billion of loans to hardest-hit countries - Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea - after their currencies collapsed during the crisis. In return, the three Asian nations were forced to cut spending, raise interest rates and sell state-owned companies. There is no doubt that the establishment of a financial blood pool of Asia’s own will strengthen the capacity and enhance the efficiency of regional economies in handing a financial crisis.

The regional reserve fund is also expected to accelerate the Asian countries’ movement towards financial integration and promotion of a mutually complementary and win-win financial climate. Since 2000, there has been sluggish progress made in promoting Asian financial cooperation, especially in the construction of the region’s currency swap mechanism.　

Thus, the setting up of the contingency reserve fund can serve as one evidence of the essential advance Asian members have made towards promoting the much-anticipated regional financial cooperation. It is also a reflection of Japan’s positive attitude in this regard. In previous years, the largest Asian economy had adopted an ambiguous and negative stance on Asian financial cooperation.

The establishment of a foreign exchange reserve pool in Asia is also expected to promote reforms of international financial mechanisms, and increase Asian nations’ voice in international financial institutions. With the acceleration of global integration and interchange in recent years, the world’s economy has become more prone to a financial crisis. As the world’s two major financial bodies, the IMF and the World Bank, however, have performed poorly in terms of offering economic aid to crisis-stricken countries. The creation of the Asian foreign reserve fund is thus expected to play a complementary role in the region.

Also, the reserve pool, as an elementary form of the Asian monetary fund, will increase Asian countries’ financial independence in times of crisis and help them to take concerted action in the face of increasing international competition - a move that will raise the region’s bargaining power in international negotiations.

Besides, the $120 billion fund will help strengthen Asian members’ foreign reserve security. The injection of such an enormous amount into the regional reserve pool will increase Asian nations’ fund management flexibility and boost their foreign reserve value provided a well-designed fund management and operation mechanism is set up. In addition, it will raise Asia’s attractiveness to the outside world and maintain the region’s economic vigor.

With the emergence of East European countries and other regions in recent years, Asian economies’ attractiveness to foreign investors has been on the decline. The ongoing global crisis and the accelerated deleveraging trend in the US and European financial bodies have further contributed to some extent to capital outflow from Asian countries.

Thus, the establishment of the regional foreign reserve pool is of symbolic significance to investors, indicating the determination of Asian countries to maintain their financial stability.

The author is a researcher with the Institute of Finance and Banking under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Top executives of GM Thailand group said Tuesday the bankruptcy filing of General Motors Corporation (GM) has no direct impact on GM’s non-U.S. operations, and GM Thailand would continue its operations.

At a press briefing held by GM Thailand, which consists of GM Southeast Asia Operations, General Motors (Thailand) Limited and Chevrolet Sales (Thailand) Limited, President Steve Carlisle said that none of GM’s overseas operations are included in the bankruptcy filed on Monday by its parent GM in the United States.

The General Motors in the U.S. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, which is the largest ever for an industrial company.

Under the filing agreement, several of GM’s strongest operations and brands will be sold to a ‘New GM’.

“The GM Asia Pacific Region, including GM Thailand and ASEAN, will be an important part of the ‘New GM’ and will maintain normal business operations,” said Carlisle, The Nation newspaper’s website reported.

Carlisle said “As I’ve mentioned before, we are separate entities from GM and have the capability, resources and technology to continue our operations.”

Amid the economic crisis, the GM Asia Pacific Region recorded unprecedented growth in the first quarter of this year, and all indicators showed that this trend would continue for the rest of 2009, Carlisle said.

“Customers of GM Thailand can rest assured that warranties and all other customer obligations will be honored without interruption. We will also increase our emphasis and focus on our after-sales service,” said Antonio Zara, vice president of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales Service for Chevrolet Sales Thailand.

The weekly average prices of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) rose faster with the international crude oil prices to 66.94 U.S. dollars per barrel last week, which almost doubled the prices of 34.92 dollars in the last week of 2008, said the Vienna-based cartel Monday.

OPEC’s Ministerial Conference on May 28 decided to maintain the production quota, after which OPEC’s oil prices kept rising. The average daily prices rose to 68.08 dollars per barrel on June 5, which is 7.33 dollars higher than May 27 before the meeting.

Market analysts generally believed that seeing the continued improvement of economic data, the market became increasingly optimistic about the economic recovery. At the same time, the rise of the stock market and the weakening U.S. dollars due to outflow of the hedge funds also attributed to the surge of international oil prices.

However, the data released recently in the U.S. that the unemployment in May was lower than expectation was the major factor boosting the oil prices in the last few days.

Some analysts also pointed out that although the gradual recovery of investors’ confidence supported the upward trend of the oil prices, the depreciation of the U.S. dollar also played an important role, and in the near future, the exchange rate of the U.S. dollar will continue to impose great impact on oil prices if no other incident occurs.

The massive public debt incurred by governments because of the global financial crisis seems to have prompted the inflation monster, which caused havoc across the world in 2007, to raise its head again. The recent hike in oil prices - from about 40 U.S. dollars a barrel in March to more than 70 dollars a barrel and a 20 percent increase in raw material prices during the same period are indications that inflation has started setting in. Another sign is the price of gold futures, which has crossed 1,000 dollars an ounce.

Inflation is set begin in the United States where money supply seems to have spiraled out of control. Since the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, the Federal Reserve has been printing huge amounts of currency notes to fund its bailout packages and increase employment. At the same time, the United States has adjusted its interest rate to a historic low of almost zero percent.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) elected Japanese Ambassador to the organization Yukiya Amano as its new director general on Thursday afternoon.

The election did not witness a smooth voting process. Due to apparent differences on who should head the agency, its board conducted long multilateral and bilateral consultations as well as two secret formal ballots before Amano was finally elected.

The IAEA General Assembly is scheduled to approve Amano’s appointment in September, and he will succeed the incumbent IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei on Dec. 1.

The IAEA, founded in October 1957, has now 146 members with its headquarters based in Vienna, Austria.

Since its establishment, the agency has considered nuclear verification and safeguard, nuclear security, and nuclear technology transfer as the three pillars of its work.

El Baradei, from Egypt, first served as the agency’s chief in 1997, and was re-elected in 2001 and 2005. His third term would be due at the end of this year. Last year, El Baradei stated he would not serve a fourth term.

During El Baradei’s term, Iraqi, Korean and Iranian nuclear issues have been under international focus successively, while Libyan and Syrian nuclear-related issues have also aroused great concern in the international community.

A series of events have made El Baradei the most eye-catching director general ever.

Due to his outstanding contribution to the prevention of nuclear proliferation, El Baradei and the agency shared the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

With the development and changes of the international situation, how to deal with the contradiction between non-proliferation and peaceful use of nuclear power has become the biggest challenge facing the IAEA.

On non-proliferation, the IAEA is facing demanding tasks such as clarifying the outstanding issues concerning the Iranian nuclear program, completing the verification of the Syrian suspected facility, and bringing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) back to the Treaty of Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

In addition, with the increasing security problem of the energy supply and the exacerbating global warming, the nuclear power, as one of the alternative energy sources, is receiving more and more attention.

In 1986, the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union had a tremendous impact on the world’s nuclear power development. In more than 20 years afterwards, the United States did not construct any new nuclear power plant, and Germany’s new plant failed to be put into operation due to strong anti-nuclear forces in Europe. Some countries including Austria still refused to develop nuclear power at all.

Now many countries begin to re-consider utilizing the nuclear power. The United States has planned to build a new nuclear power station, while some European countries including Britain, Italy and France also have intentions to expand the use of the clean energy.

Meanwhile, more and more developing countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, even Vietnam and the Philippines begin to show interest in the nuclear power. The nuclear power has become increasingly popular in the whole world.

With this trend, the risk of abusing nuclear materials and nuclear technology and in turn the risk of nuclear proliferation is also on the rise.

Therefore, the IAEA is facing the task of how to guarantee nuclear security and effectively prevent nuclear proliferation while actively promoting the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

However, on this issue, developed and developing countries have their own different focuses. Developed countries requested the IAEA to assume the tasks of non-proliferation and safe keeping, emphasizing the responsibility and strict restrictions of developing and utilizing nuclear power, while developing countries claimed the IAEA should, besides advocating non-proliferation, also focus on assisting developing countries in the development and peaceful use of nuclear energy under equal conditions.

On the future budget of the IAEA, developed countries such as the United States and Britain required the agency to achieve a zero-growth budget, while developing countries demanded the agency’s budget should actually guarantee the need especially in the areas of development assistance.

On the surface, the election of the new director general seems to be a race between Japanese Amano and South African Abdul Minty, but actually it reflected the absence of mutual trust between developed and developing countries, as both sides each were seeking a “spokesperson” for their own interests.

Therefore, how to not only promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy but also comprehensively and effectively prevent nuclear proliferation on a fair and equal basis will be the core issue to be solved by the IAEA in the future.

 More families in Los Angeles choose not to claim bodies of their members from authorities as a result of the poor economy, a newspaper report said Tuesday.

    Bodies in increasing numbers are going unclaimed at the Los Angeles County coroner’s office and the county morgue because families cannot afford to bury or cremate their loved ones, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.

    At the coroner’s office, which handles homicides and other suspicious deaths, 36 percent more cremations were done at taxpayers’ expense in the last fiscal year over the previous year, from 525 to 712.

    Meanwhile, the county morgue, which is responsible for the indigent and others who go unclaimed, saw a 25 percent increase in cremations in the first half of this year over the same period a year ago, rising to 680 from 545.

    The demands on the county crematorium have been so high that officials there stopped accepting bodies from the coroner earlier this year. The coroner’s office since has contracted with two private crematories to handle the overflow, the report said.

    Once the coroner’s office cremates an unclaimed body, the family can pay 352 U.S. dollars to the office to receive the ashes. The fee for claiming ashes from the morgue is 466 dollars.

    According to the report, coroners and funeral directors around the United States say they are seeing the same trend as cash-strapped families cope with funeral costs.

    Claiming a body from the Los Angeles County coroner’s office costs 200 dollars, and a private cremation usually costs nearly 1,000 dollars, said David Smith, an investigator of the coroner’s office.

    Funeral homes charge an average of 7,300 dollars to transport and bury a body in a simple grave, according to the National Funeral Home Directors Association.

Housing starts declined in July from the previous month, and this year’s starts will be sharply down from 2008 and 2007, a new report said Tuesday.

Housing starts fell to 132,100 units in July from 137,800 units in June, on a seasonally adjusted annual rate, mostly because of the multiple-units segment that includes condos and apartment buildings, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp said in the report.

Although the starts are expected to rise later this year, the agency predicted that housing starts will fall gradually over the next few years, compared with the housing boom in 2007 and 2008, when builders and buyers responded to a strong economy, low interest rates and years of pent-up demand.

Over the next several years housing starts will gradually become more closely aligned to demographic demand, which is currently estimated at about 175,000 units per year, it said.

Housing starts reached 211,056 units in 2008, down from 228,343in 2007. The number is predicted to be 160,250 this year and about163,350 for 2010, according to the report.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Thursday his secular Fatah party wrapped up its sixth Fatah congress after electing new leadership for its executive and legislative bodies for the first time in 20 years.

The Fatah convention initially planned for three days kicked off in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Aug. 4, with more than 2,000 Fatah members at present. It was the first in the past two decades and also the first to be held on the Palestinian soil.

“The sixth general conference has achieved a great success,” Abbas told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Abbas has been overwhelmingly re-elected to lead Fatah at the party conference as no other Fatah candidate challenged his five-year rule of the party which was established in the 1950s.

Abbas succeeded late Fatah founding father Yasser Arafat who headed the movement for 40 years until his death in November 2004.

Fatah also elected new leadership for its Central Committee, the executive body, and Revolutionary Council, the parliament.

The congress voted for 19 members of the new central committee. Young generation of Fatah reformists won 14 seats, while the other five are from the old guard trend.

Abbas, in his capacity as the Fatah leader, maintained his seat in the central committee. The newly elected members of the committee have the right to add three more members to fill the 23-member body.

However, the votes count for the revolutionary council has not finished yet as the congress closed on Thursday. Executive director Moneer Salama has said the result is expected to come out late Friday.

After chairing the first meeting of the newly elected central committee of Fatah movement at his office in Ramallah, Abbas told reporters that “Fatah movement will continue clinging to the programs that aims at ending the Israeli occupation.”

“Fatah clings to the program of Palestine Liberation Organization and will seek to end the occupation and establish the independent statehood through negotiations without dropping the right of resistance,” said Abbas.

He also said the Fatah movement rejects “all the projects of temporary statehood, the alternative homeland or resettling the Palestinian people in Jordan.”

Abbas said the peace negotiations with Israel “should be based on the parties in respect for the international commitments, mainly the complete cessation of settlement in the Palestinian territories.”

“The peace process should also be based on the commitment to the principle of the two-state solution in accordance to an understanding on resolving all the permanent status issues,” said Abbas.

As for the complaint of Fatah leader Ahmed Qurei, better known as Abu Alla, who lost his seat on the executive of Fatah in the new election, Abbas said “I don’t believe that Fatah will have fissions following Abu Alla’s statements.”

“Abu Alla, in particular, will never think about dividing Fatah.It is his right to say whatever he wants and make comments, we would listen to him because we practice all types of democracy,” said Abbas.

Qurei described the results of the internal Fatah elections as “unstable,” adding that “it is not a coincidence that four of new elected central committee members are security leaders and coordinators with Israel.”

The 72-year-old Fatah leader, a veteran peace negotiator, who was the speaker of the first Palestinian parliament and a former prime minister, said “from the very beginning of the elections there was no transparency at all.”

Abbas said “The new central committee of Fatah was elected for Fatah and to reinforce Fatah. We consider electing a new central committee is a new breakthrough and I’m certain that it will work on empowering the movement.”

Meanwhile, Hussein al-Sheikh, a new member of the central committee, told Palestinian Radio (Voice of Palestine) that “The central committee discussed the sixth general convention of Fatah and the files of the national Palestinian dialogue between Fatah and Hamas.”

Islamic Hamas movement, Fatah’s bitter rival, prevented some 400 Gaza-based Fatah delegates from traveling to Bethlehem in a bid to force the secular movement to release Hamas’ supporters in the West Bank.

The two movements have run into feud since Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces and seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

The issue of “Gaza’s capture” and Hamas’ control of Gaza was one of the main problems the general conference had thoroughly talked about it, al-Sheikh said.

He said Fatah supports Egypt’s efforts to reconcile Hamas and Fatah via dialogue.