But EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten reiterated a call for Beijing to take more "concrete steps" to improve human rights to ensure the lifting of the ban, imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

In talks with Patten in Brussels, Yesui Zhang said China feels the ban was "inappropriate in the current context," and reiterated Beijing's respect for an EU code of conduct on arms imports to countries with human rights problems.

"They said that they were'nt expecting a huge rise in the quantity of arms imports. They understood that the code of conduct would still operate," said an EU source.

The arms embargo was imposed after June 1989, when China sent tanks to crush weeks-long pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square in central Beijing, killing hundreds.

China has been lobbying hard for the ban to be lifted. "It's the result of the Cold War, and it's out of date," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said last month. "It's not in the interest of the development of China-EU relations."

A French-led drive to end the EU embargo is fueling tension with the United States, which is vehemently opposed to lifting the ban. But a growing number of EU states appear to support the move.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has signalled support for lifting the ban. But diplomats say several EU countries, including the Netherlands and Sweden, are reluctant to lift the ban, citing China's human rights record.

Patten explained to Zhang that, while there is no direct link between the arms embargo and anything else, "it would be a great deal easier to persuade those who are not yet persuaded, for example the European Parliament, if they took some concrete steps to improve the human rights record," said the source.

Patten's spokeswoman Emma Udwin said last week that the EU is unlikely to reach an agreement on the issue at a summit in Brussels this month, although EU foreign ministers are likely to discuss it in April.

US and EU leaders locked horns over the issue in talks in Washington last week, with US Secretary of State Colin Powell expressing "concern" that the EU might lift the embargo.

French President Jacques Chirac said in January the embargo "makes no more sense today" and that he hoped it would be scrapped "in the coming months."

Even Britain, which was at the forefront of the EU arms ban in 1989, appears at least open to lifting the ban.

"Our position is that we do accept the need for a review of the arms embargo. We think there probably is an issue about modernizing it," said a British source.

Zhang's meeting with Patten was part of formal preparations for a visit to Brussels in May by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and a trip to China by European Commission head Romano Prodi in April, and to assess the state of relations.

WAR.WIRE