Referring to US President Bill Clinton's forthcoming visit to the Communist country, Albright told CNN-Television yesterday, ``Clinton will mince no words with China on the human rights issue and will make very clear that we (the US) want to see improvement in the Chinese human rights policy. But we believe that by engaging with China we have a better chance to really push them on the human rights policy.''

One out of four people in the world, Albright pointed out, are Chinese.

Hence, ``not dealing with them, not engaging with them, seems really foolish in terms of United States' national interests.''

``Engagement does not mean endorsement. We don't endorse their human rights policy and President Clinton will make that very clear, as hedid to President Jiang Zemin when he was here,'' Albright said.

When pointed out that Harru Wu, Chinese democracy and human rights activist, has ``bluntly called President Clinton's decision to begin his tour from Tiananmen square a policy of appeasement,'' Albright said that she respects Wu but ``he is wrong.''

On Clinton's decision to begin his programme in China from Tiananmen Square, Albright said this was according to Chinese protocol, but ``protocol is not policy. This is where they receive their visitors. What is more important is what the President says.''

Meanwhile, reports published in Beijing today said that China has reached an understanding with US on prevention of nuclear proliferation. ``On the issue of nuclear non-proliferation, China and the US have lately reached a memorandum of understanding on mutual visits to their nuclear facilities,'' the official Xinhua news agency reports, quoting an interview of Chinese Ambassador to US, Li Zhaoxing, said.

Quoting Li's interview to Outlook,Xinhua says that China has opened its nuclear power market to the US.

`Curbs on India, Pak will hurt us too'

US secretary of state Madeleine Albright has expressed `worry' that the sanctions imposed on India and Pakistan will not only affect the two countries but also US business.

Albright said the Glenn amendment, the law under which the United States has imposed sanctions on India and Pakistan, is ``all stick and sledgehammer and no incentives'', with no waiver authority or flexibility for the president.

``What happens is we have all the sticks and sledgehammers and then other countries come in and pick up contracts (which US Companies would have normally secured),'' she said in an interview to CNN.

Senator John Glenn, author of the sanction law, also appeared on the television network. He claimed, ``The unilateral sanctions have lost its utility in the changed scenario and the biggest problem the US faces now is that it cannot unilaterally influence the world.''