The Clinton administration informed the satellite maker `Hughes Electronics' of its decision to reject its (company's) proposed sale of a satellite to Beijing.

Hughes will have 30 days to respond but, said the Journal, ``the 450 million dollar sale seems doomed. Opponents of the sale fear it could boost communications capabilities of China's military.''

The Clinton administration and China have been working especially closely after the Indian nuclear tests, with Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright stressing that China has a role in South-Asian future. However, the administration's enthusiasm for China is not shared by Congress and by the country generally.

keeping up the diplomatic spat between the US and China that has spurted in recent times, Washingtontoday alleged China is assisting in space launch technology of North Korea that could boost Pyongyang's long-range missile programme. The Washington Times today quoted White House and Pentagon officials as saying that the space cooperation between the two countries was discovered by the National Security Agency, one of the top spy agencies, late last year, and revealed to senior Clinton administration officials recently in sensitive intelligence reports.

The reports, said the paper, are `alarming because North Korea used a long-range Taepodong missile in August to try to place a satellite in orbit. They also heighten fears among some Pentagon officials that militarily useful US satellite technology, shared `improperly' with China in 1995-96 may have been given to the North Koreans.

``There have been some scientific contacts between the North Koreans and the Chinese in the satellite area,'' a senior national Security official told the paper.

Meanwhile, China urged the UN Security Council's expert panelto adopt a `flexible and constructive attitude' to ensure a `positive progress' in its assessment of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, at an early date.

`China attaches importance to the Council's upcoming assessment on Iraqi inspections,'' Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said here.The official Xinhua news agency said Zhang made the remarks when asked to comment on the Security Council's expert panel for disarmament in Iraq, which is expected to start evaluation today.