"China will never seek hegemony and never be the first to use nuclear weapons," it said. "These policies will not change."

The United States has repeatedly expressed concern about China's growing military might and influence in the Asia-Pacific region but in a position paper Beijing said the world had nothing to fear.

"The wide scope and magnitude of China's unilateral disarmament over the past 20 years has been rarely seen in the history of international arms control and disarmament," it said.

It pointed out that it has downsized its military from 4.2 million personnel in 1987 to its current levels of 2.3 million, and said its "moderately increasing" defence expenditure was primarily to pay rising salaries.

At the same time, China took a swipe at the United States for helping Taiwan protect itself against a missile threat, saying such moves eroded trust and undermined regional peace and stability.

"As the Taiwan question involves its core interests, China opposes the attempt by any country to provide help or protection to the Taiwan region of China in the field of missile defence by any means," it said.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to use force to retake the island should it formally declare independence. It has hundreds of missiles pointed at the island.

The United States remains Taiwan's leading arms supplier despite switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979 and has supplied it in the past with anti-missile systems.

Hu will travel to Washington next week for a summit with President George W. Bush and while trade and energy issues are set to top their agenda, Taiwan and arms are also expected to be key topics of discussion.

China, with the United States, is one of only a handful of declared nuclear states, conducting its first nuclear test in 1964.

But with neighbour North Korea now saying it has nuclear capability, the threat has emerged of a nuclear arms race in Asia that would threaten its powerbase, observers say.

In the position paper -- China's Endeavours for Arms Control, Disarmament and Non-Proliferation -- Beijing said it had always favoured nuclear disarmament, and called for restraint from other nations.

"China has persistently exercised the utmost restraint on the scale and development of its nuclear weapons and has never taken part and will never take part in any nuclear arms race," it said.

"China has always stood for the complete prohibition and thorough destruction of nuclear weapons."

It made clear that disputes over nuclear weapons, such as those rumbling on with North Korea and Iran, should be handled through dialogue and not threats.

"All states should resort to political and diplomatic means to solve the proliferation problem and non-proliferation means should be used to help maintain and promote international security," it said.

But it also said a balance must be struck between non-proliferation and the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

China has hosted four rounds of talks over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. The six sides involved -- the two Koreas, Russia, Japan, China and the United States --- were due to reconvene this week but Pyongyang said it was not ready.

One sticking point was whether North Korea should be allowed to run nuclear power plants for civilian use.

China also used the position paper to defend its policies on controlling the export of nuclear, biological, chemical and missile technologies, and to warn about weapons being deployed in space.

"Outer space is the common wealth of mankind but, at present, the danger of weaponization of outer space is growing with each passing day," it said.

"Such a prospect is not in the interest of any country."

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.

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