LONDON: British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Wednesday praised China's increasingly active role in international affairs.

"There are many examples of where China has shouldered its new responsibility as a global player and bolstered the work of the international community," he said at a seminar discussing the rise of China at the Smith Institute, a socio-economic think tank in London.

"China played a crucial role in stabilizing the markets in the Asian financial crisis of 1997. It is working with international partners on the challenge of avian flu," he said.

China has also played a very positive role in the Six-Party Talks on the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, and "can bring to the table a degree of political leverage" which no other country has, he added.

Talking about China's economy, Straw said China is "a fifth of humanity to the global economy," and has become an integral part of the global economic landscape.

"There is always going to be a great deal of interest in China's economic policies and progress... We need and want China to maintain political stability and to continue stable and sustainable growth," he said.

Straw also said he hoped China would shoulder more responsibilities and play a leading role in world affairs. "As China's weight builds and its impact around the globe gets deeper, we have a greater and greater interest in the kind of international actor that China is becoming."

(China Daily 04/28/2006 page2)