BEIJING: China’s defence minister on Monday told a leading United States Congressman the US must immediately abolish weapon sales to Taiwan to protect Sino-US ties, state press reported.

“The US arms sale plan, regardless of China’s repeated opposition, has undoubtedly damaged relations between the two countries and two armed forces seriously,” Xinhua news agency quoted Liang Guanglie as saying.

The minister told Senator Chuck Hagel high level exchanges between the US and Chinese military had been damaged by the US plan, the report said.

The Pentagon earlier this month notified Congress of $6.5 billion in possible arms sales to Taiwan that would include advanced interceptor missiles, Apache attack helicopters and submarine-launched missiles.

The Defence Security and Cooperation Agency said the proposed sales were aimed at improving Taiwan’s defences and would not alter the basic military balance in the region.

China reacted angrily to the proposal and said the US was violating agreements on the gradual reduction of weapons to the island territory.

Liang urged the US “to immediately abolish” the proposed sale “to avoid destroying China-US state-to-state and military-to-military relations,” Xinhua said.—AFP