China says has not received invite to Syria meeting

BEIJING, Feb 17 (Reuters) - China said on Friday that

it had yet to receive a formal invite to a meeting of

international powers in Tunis next week to discuss the Syria

crisis, and that it was therefor unable to say if it would be

attending.

The Feb. 24 meeting is part of a newly-created "Friends of

Syria Group" aimed at trying to find a way of peacefully ending

the conflict in Syria.

It will be attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary

Clinton, European and Arab League foreign ministers.

"The final details for this meeting have not yet been laid

out. According to my knowledge, China has not yet received a

formal invitation, so I'm afraid at this point it is hard to say

whether China will send a representative," Foreign Ministry

spokesman Liu Weimin told a daily news briefing.

The comments came as Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun

was due in Syria on Friday as part of Beijing's own diplomatic

efforts to end the crisis.

The U.N. General Assembly ratcheted up the pressure on

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Thursday by overwhelmingly

approving a resolution that endorses an Arab League plan calling

for him to step aside.

The resolution, similar to one Russia and China vetoed in

the Security Council on Feb. 4, received 137 votes in favor, 12

against and 17 abstentions, although three countries said their

votes failed to register on the electronic board.

Russia and China were among those opposing the resolution,

which was drafted by Saudi Arabia and submitted by Egypt on

behalf of Arab states. Unlike in the Security Council, there are

no vetoes in the General Assembly, but its decisions lack the

legal force of council resolutions.

In a commentary on Friday, the official newspaper of China's

ruling Communist Party, the People's Daily, repeated that any

attempts at armed intervention or forced regime change were the

wrong way of dealing with Syria.

"Once that road is gone down ... not only will it complicate

the Syrian issue, it will also shake the basic norms of

international relations," it wrote.

The author used the pen name "Zhong Sheng", which can mean

"voice of China" and is often used to give Beijing's position on

foreign policy.

(Reporting by Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard; Editing by

Sanjeev Miglani)