Further investigation on the case is underway, Qin said.

Qin also expressed sympathy and solicitude for the Australians involved in the case. "I sincerely hope they will come to travel in China again and won't consider China unsafe just because of this case."

"China is a safe place for foreigners and we will continue to provide a sound and safe environment for them to work, study, live and travel in the country."

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith said Wednesday he was pleased the hostage crisis was resolved so quickly and the hostages were safe.

Investigation of dumpling poisoning to continue

China on Thursday said its investigation into the dumpling poisoning incident would continue and no unilateral conclusion should be drawn before the truth was discovered.

Qin said that the incident was a cross-border one concerning food safety and could not be solved without cooperation between China and Japan.

Qin stressed that the Chinese government had always attached great importance to food safety and taken a highly responsible attitude towards both domestic and foreign consumers.

With intense concern over the dumpling poisoning incident, relevant Chinese government bodies had taken all necessary measures to conduct careful and conscientious investigations and released preliminary investigation results, said Qin.

Qin said that to find out the truth about the incident, China hoped relevant Chinese and Japanese authorities – in particular, the police departments – would continue to strengthen communications, intensify cooperation, take a "calm, objective, open and scientific" attitude in investigating the incident and give a responsible answer to both the Chinese and the Japanese people.

The conclusion should not be drawn unilaterally, Qin added.

Qin said China hoped to establish a long-term mechanism on food safety cooperation with Japan as soon as possible to assure timely and effective bilateral cooperation should there be similar incidents in the future.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2008)