The Chinese government was consulting with the United Nations (UN) Secretariat on enlarging its peacekeeping force in Lebanon, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday.

"China would like to make positive contributions to peace in Middle East and is consulting with the United Nations Secretariat on increasing the number of peacekeepers to Lebanon," the spokesman said.

China has always supported the peace process in the Middle East, said Qin.

"China believes the expansion and deployment of UN peacekeepers in Lebanon will be important for stabilizing the Middle East situation," Qin said.

Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday announced that China would enlarge its peacekeeping force in Lebanon to 1,000.

Since 1990, China has participated in 15 UN operations, involving more than 6,000 Chinese peacekeepers, Qin said, and nine Chinese peacekeepers had died in UN peacekeeping operations.

More than 180 Chinese peacekeepers have already been deployed in Lebanon, most of whom are engineers.

Source: Xinhua