Chinese using UN vote to win Kuwait weapons deal

China is using its vote on extending UN trade sanctions against Iraq to leverage a Kuwaiti purchase of Chinese weapons over US and European competitors, the Washington Post said on July 15.

"Sometimes you get to a state when you feel you're being blackmailed," a annual senior Kuwaiti official told the daily.

"We lean toward the US equipment, but we have to find a way to please the Chinese and not upset them in the UN security council," he added.

The purchase of 72 Chinese-made self-propelled howitzers would cost and estimated 300 million US dollars, according to the Kuwaiti official and Western diplomatic sources.

China is seeking a foothold in one of the world's richest arms markets, the sources said, by hinting it will withhold its support for extending trade sanctions against Iraq if Kuwait does not agree to the arms purchase.

US arms experts said that as the memory of the 1991 US-led Gulf war against Iraq begins to fade, Arab allies are trying to diversify their arms suppliers for political and economic reasons.

"If they're totally dependent on one supplier, they'll be dependent on the politics of their relationship with that supplier," said Richard, an arms control expert at the Congressional Research Service.

China, along with Britain, France, Russia and the United States, is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the UN security council, which will vote on whether or not to renew trade sanctions against Iraq in October.