``I regret that some people plot to weaken the UN's role, especially the role of the Security Council. There are even people who try to put regional groupings above the UN and the Security Council, Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan said in an indirect reference to the US attempts to side-step the UN.

However, Tang predicted that such attempts would be futile: ``These acts are futile and will not lead anywhere. China is strongly opposed to them, Tang said during a joint press conference with visiting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan here.

Tang described his 140-minute talk with Annan as thorough: ``We discussed the major role of the UN in safeguarding peace, promoting common development and facilitating international cooperation,'' he said, adding that he and the Secretary-General also had anin-depth exchange of views on sensitive major international and regional issues.

``We indeed had very good talks and reached common understanding between us. We all agreed that the UN should play a more important, more constructive role in world affairs,'' the Chinese Foreign Minister said.

``The UN is the most universal, inter-governmental and international organisation in the world, comprising of sovereign states. In today's world, no other international institution can replace the UN or its authority,'' he said.

Annan, who is on a four-day official visit to China, while agreeing with Tang, noted that his talks with Tang were very long and fruitful.

Annan said his regular yearly visits to China has allowed him to exchange views and to see what both sides could do to strengthen the UN, particularly at the stage when the world is prepared to enter the next millennium.

He said the UN Charter was a living document that had gone through the test of time. ``We would be able to work with it and adapt itas we confront different situations and different eras,'' he said.

``We hope that we as the international community of the UN will be able to resolve those difficulties. The tensions basically are between state sovereignty and protection of the state and the individual and how we reconcile the need to protect state sovereignty and individuals within the state.''

Meanwhile, Xinhua news agency reported that Annan met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin on Wednesday.