The leaders said after summit talks that they were "looking forward to further progress in all areas" of the 25-nation bloc's relationship with China, in particular for Beijing to sign a UN accord on civil and political rights.

The EU leaders also hoped for greater economic cooperation with a country whose economy has grown in leaps and bounds since the arms embargo was imposed in the wake of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

In pressing for closer ties, "the European Council (of EU leaders) reaffirmed the political will to continue to work towards lifting the arms embargo", according to written conclusions at the two-day summit.

For the first time the leaders also gave a time-frame for when that might happen, calling on the Luxembourg government to proceed towards an agreement when it holds the EU presidency from January to June next year.

They "invited the next presidency to finalise the well-advanced work in order to allow for a decision", said the text, which left open the possibility of an agreement after June.

EU countries like France and Germany -- both major arms exporters -- agree with China that the ban is "outdated".

But the United States is strongly opposed to the EU lifting its embargo, arguing that a resumption of European arms sales will undermine Taiwan and encourage domestic repression in the vast communist nation.

In a sign of disquiet in other EU countries, including Britain and the Nordic states, the EU leaders' summit text also suggested that any lifting of the arms ban would be purely symbolic.

The leaders "underlined that the result of any decision should not be an increase of arms exports from EU member states to China, neither in quantitative nor qualitative terms", it said.

The leaders "recalled the importance of the criteria" of a new EU code of conduct on arms exports, "in particular criteria regarding human rights, stability and security in the region and the national security of friendly and allied countries".

They also stressed the importance of the "early adoption" of the revised code of conduct and an accompanying "toolbox" of measures to regulate any arms exports to China.

On other matters, the leaders invited their governments and the EU executive "to further explore the feasibility of a new EU-China framework agreement and possible cooperation on issues such as readmission and market economy status".

Readmitting illegal immigrants back to China is one of the EU's key demands on the country, which in turn has been pushing strongly to receive EU recognition that it now qualifies as a full market economy.

Such a status, coupled with an end to the arms embargo, would signal European acknowledgement that China has transformed itself since the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy protestors in central Beijing.

The Chinese government denies that a lifting of the EU ban would open the weapons floodgates.

"Rather, it is aimed to oppose political discrimination against China," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told journalists at an EU-China summit in The Hague this month.

But China does want access to cutting-edge technology to upgrade its weapons systems and to reduce its reliance on Russian exports, analysts say.

They say that with the United States intent on maintaining its own arms embargo on China, Europe is the only other outlet capable of offering high-tech systems such as radars and sonars coveted in Beijing.