Disunification

Well, maybe Europe will come to its senses over the Chinese arms embargo.

German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer has admitted that he is less optimistic than Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder about the prospect of the EU lifting its arms embargo on China.

"The chancellor knows that I am more sceptical on this issue than him, just as my party and my parliamentary party are," Fischer said in an interview with Die Zeit weekly to be published on Wednesday.

Fischer is a leading member of the Greens, who form the ruling coalition with Schroeder's Social Democratic Party (SPD).

"The EU foreign ministers are working towards a consensus that we have not yet found: on human rights, regional stability, an agreement on a restrictive code of conduct for European weapons exports, and the objections from the United States," Fischer added.

Raising the arms embargo against China would be a bad thing. Hear me now and believe me later.