China today reiterated its opposition to sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, as Tehran came under mounting pressure from world leaders at the United Nations to stop uranium enrichment.
"We always believe that sanctions and pressure are not the way out," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.
"At present, it is not conducive to diplomatic efforts."
Iran's suspect nuclear ambitions were atop the agenda at the UN General Assembly yesterday, and even Russia signalled it could back sanctions if Tehran failed to make concessions in talks with six major powers next week.
But Jiang called for renewed diplomacy on the issue.
"We hope relevant parties will... Redouble diplomatic efforts," she said.
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The West suspects Iran is trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability under the cover of a civilian atomic programme.
But Tehran denies the charge and maintains that it will instead discuss proposals to promote global nuclear disarmament at next week's meeting in Geneva.