China Receives Iraqi Official, May Send Food

China welcomed a surprise visit Thursday by Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Taha Yassin Ramadan and hinted that it might send food and medicine to Baghdad.

“The (U.N.) resolution . . . clearly stipulates that the embargo against Iraq does not include supplies intended strictly for medical purposes and foodstuffs in humanitarian circumstances,” spokeswoman Li Jinhua told a news conference.

“And I agree that this point should also be strictly implemented,” she added.

President Saddam Hussein said Wednesday that Iraqi children are endangered because the embargo has deprived them of food, milk and medicine.

A U.S.-dominated military presence enforcing the economic blockade has choked off Iraq’s oil exports and squeezed its supplies of imported food and medicine.

There are more than 5,000 Chinese citizens in Iraq. Beijing has not announced any plans to withdraw them.

India told the United Nations on Wednesday that it wants to send food and medicine to Iraq and Kuwait on humanitarian grounds.

The Chinese spokeswoman said Ramadan had come to Beijing at Baghdad’s request to discuss the gulf crisis.

Diplomats said that Ramadan, who headed a 30-man delegation, would probably meet Vice Premier Wu Xueqian and try to dissuade China from moving closer to the tough stance adopted by Western powers in the gulf.

China has supported Security Council resolutions on the gulf but has taken a softer line than other permanent members--the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union.

It has called for an Arab solution and condemned possible use of force by the big powers as risking all-out war.