The United Nations (UN) Security Council should address the Arabic countries' concerns in its discussion on the Iraqi issue, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing told senior Arab officials Tuesday.

Li made the remarks in talks on phone respectively with Habib Ben Yahia, foreign minister of Tunisia, the rotating presidency of the Arab League (AL), and Amr Mahmoud Moussa, AL secretary-general.

The Chinese and Arab sides exchanged views on the situation in Iraq and the new draft resolution on the Iraqi issue being discussed in the Security Council.

Both sides held that the military occupation of Iraq should end as soon as possible, Iraq's sovereignty should be resumed in an all-round way, and a new highly-representative Iraqi government should be established soon through fair and democratic election.

In the process of solving the above issues, the United Nations should play an important role, they said.

The UN Security Council should heed and respect the opinions of the Arabic countries during its discussion, Li said.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2004)