If he will make a statement on the EU embargo on arms sales to China.

I refer the hon. Gentleman to my earlier answer to my hon. Friend Mr. Harris.

The European Council in December 2004 discussed the EU arms embargo on China. The UK and partners invited the Luxembourg presidency of the EU to take forward work on the review of the embargo. That is ongoing. Until the review process is complete, the Government continue fully to implement the arms embargo.

I listened to the Minister's earlier answers, and particularly to the penetrating questions put from both sides of the House. If the code will not allow any more arms to be sold to China than under the existing embargo, as he asserts, what it the point of lifting that embargo, and why are the Americans so strongly opposed to doing so?

There is an issue over whether progress has been made since the immediate aftermath of the events in Tiananmen square. While we continue to have significant concerns about the situation in China, there has undoubtedly been some progress on human rights since those events, as has been acknowledged by past Governments. Given that, we must ask ourselves whether it is right, through the arms embargo, to lump China into the same block as Burma, Sudan and Zimbabwe. That is why we are reviewing the embargo. I repeat, however, that no arms sale that has been refused until now under the embargo would, to all intents and purposes, be possible under the code of conduct. It should also be made clear that most applications for arms exports to China that have been refused in recent years have already been refused under the EU code of conduct, not under the arms embargo.