Beijing: China today (May 5, 2004) promised to complete the multimillion Dollar Gwardar port project but asked Pakistan to thoroughly probe the car deadly bombing, punish the perpetrators and take "effective steps" to guarantee the safety of Chinese citizens.

China has urged Pakistan to "find out the cause, punish the killer and take effective measures to guarantee safety of Chinese people in Pakistan", Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said while commenting for the first time on Monday's (May 23, 2004) car bombing incident in which three Chinese engineers died and nine others were injured in Gwadar.

Kong said that Chinese embassy in Pakistan and the department of Consular Affairs of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs have met the Pakistani officials from Pakistani Foreign Ministry and the Charge d'Affaires and interim of Pakistani embassy in Beijing on Monday and Tuesday.

"During their meetings, the Chinese officials lodged representations on the explosion to the Pakistani side and urged them to try their utmost to rescue the injured and handle the related affairs," Kong was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

"Currently, the Pakistani police are investigating the explosion and reporting the case timely to the Chinese side," he said.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali have already sent letters to their Chinese counterparts, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao to assure the safety of Chinese nationals in Pakistan.

Xinhua also reported that Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing today talked over telephone with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri on the bomb attack in southern Pakistan, in which three Chinese nationals were killed.

Li, who is travelling with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on a visit to Germany, "appreciated Pakistan's efforts to treat the injured Chinese and hoped the perpetrators be brought to justice as soon as possible".

"China attaches importance to the friendly cooperation with Pakistan," Li said, adding that the Chinese Government is willing to join hands with Pakistan to complete the construction of the Gwadar port, an important cooperation project between the two countries.

Kasuri assured Li that the Pakistani Government has ordered police to conduct investigation into the attack while directed hospitals to give best possible treatment for the injured, he said.

Three Chinese engineers were killed and 11 others, including two Pakistanis, were wounded earlier Monday when an unoccupied car exploded near their bus in Gwadar, about 500 km West of Karachi.

Meanwhile, Kong also said that China will send a joint working group made up of officials from the Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Communications to handle post explosion affairs in Pakistan.

The medical staff will be sent together with a working group of China Harbour Engineering Company to Pakistan, a Commerce Ministry official said.