China, in a surprisingly strong reaction to the start of the U.S.-led war against Iraq , called on Thursday for an immediate halt to military action and a return to efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully. Chinese analysts had expected the government to issue a mild rebuke that would not risk a setback to improving relations with Washington. Instead, Beijing chose to focus on the primacy of the U.N. Security Council in world affairs.

"We strongly urge relevant countries to immediately stop military action," Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a news conference without mentioning the United States by name.

"They ignored the opposition of most countries and peoples of the world and went around the U.N. Security Council to begin military action against Iraq," he said.

"This constitutes a violation of the U.N. charter and the basic norms of international law," he said.

"We hope to see an immediate halt to military action and a return to the path of a political settlement," Kong said.

Kong did not respond directly to questions on the effect the war would have on Sino-U.S. relations.

Asked if Vice President Dick Cheney , scheduled to visit China in April, was still welcome, Kong said merely that President Hu Jintao had issued that invitation when he visited the United States last year as vice president.

He declined to comment further.

SURPRISE

The strength of the government statement surprised Chinese analysts.

Jin Canrong, a professor of international relations at People's University in Beijing, said he had expected an expression of regret and hope for a resumption of diplomacy and for China, which like France and Russia pushed for a diplomatic solution in the United Nations , to "keep a low profile."

"It's a bit stronger than I had anticipated," he said later. But he said if the government had been prepared to risk its relations with Washington, it would not have turned down student applications for anti-war protests.

"It's unlikely to have an impact on China-U.S. relations," Jin said.

Other Chinese analysts said the statement was clearly directed at a domestic audience fed for years on a steady diet of rhetoric about U.S. hegemony, as well as a global community that had heard Beijing's repeated calls for peace.

Although China is eager to keep ties with the United States on an even keel, that would become more difficult if civilian casualties mounted or if U.S. forces found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction or if Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was killed.

"It's a kind of political posturing by the Chinese side due to strong opposition to the war at home and abroad," said Wang Yong, executive director of Peking University's Center for International Political Economic Research.

"But China will not escalate criticism of the United States further," Wang said. "The impact on China-U.S. relations won't be huge," he said.

But China's position would change if Saddam used chemical or biological weapons, analysts said.

"If Saddam really does use them, this will change the attitude of the United Nations, including China. In this case, the U.S. war will be justifiable," said Peking University international relations expert Zhu Feng.

BALANCED REPORTING

On the first day of the war, China allowed what appeared to be balanced reporting by its state controlled media.

In a rare move, state television broadcast live, with simultaneous translation, the address by President Bush on the start of the war.

Other official news outlets ran the text of Bush's brief speech on their Web sites in both Chinese and English.

State television also carried a later live broadcast from Baghdad by Saddam, also with simultaneous translation.

China has boosted security around foreign embassies in the past few weeks, partly for a two-week session of parliament that ended on Tuesday.

Extra guards were stationed near embassies, some with flak jackets, helmets and automatic weapons. Several roads were blocked off this week, including one near the Israeli embassy.

PHOTO CAPTION

Spokesman Kong Quan of China's Foreign Ministry invites questions from journalists during a news conference in Beijing, March 20, 2003. China on Thursday called for an immediate halt to the U.S.-led war on Iraq and a return to efforts to resolve the crisis peacefully. (Andrew Wong/Reuters)