Major General Qian Lihua, director of the Foreign Affairs Office at the Chinese Ministry of National Defence, told the Financial Times that if China did build a carrier, it would only be used for offshore defence.

"Navies of great powers with more than 10 aircraft carrier battle groups with strategic military objectives have a different purpose from countries with only one or two carriers used for offshore defence," he said, apparently in reference to the United States which has 11, according to the FT.

"Even if one day we have an aircraft carrier, unlike another country we will not use it to pursue global deployment or global reach."

The interview comes amid widespread speculation inside and outside China that Beijing is planning to acquire an aircraft carrier.

Earlier this year, the head of the US Pacific Command, Admiral Timothy Keating, was reported to have said that Chinese military leaders were intensely interested in such an acquisition.

In March 2007, a Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper reported that China could have its first aircraft carrier by 2010.

This would likely trigger serious fears, especially in the United States, about China's global ambitions. The FT notes Qian's remarks were unlikely to address concerns over how it would affect a conflict involving Taiwan.

But the Chinese official noted that on a wider scale, it was "unreasonable" for Western countries to continue to call on Beijing for peacekeeping missions but at the same time maintain curbs on arms exports imposed in 1989.

"US and EU countries on one hand ask us to send more troops to peacekeeping operations overseas, while on the other, they still have such arms sales embargoes on China. I think that is quite unreasonable," Qian said.

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