China was elected on Thursday by member states of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a member of its inter-governmental committee to safeguard intangible cultural heritages.

The first meeting of its 45 member states at the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritages, which started on June 27, closed on Thursday in Paris, after appointing an 18-member inter-governmental committee.

China was elected to the committee with 40 votes and would participate in discussing and nominating the list of intangible cultural heritage items.

"Intangible cultural heritage" is defined by UNESCO as the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritages.

China's delegation, comprising officials from China's Culture Ministry, Education Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry, as well as Chinese representatives in UNESCO, was headed by the deputy Secretary-General of China's State Council, Chen Jinyu, who met with Koichiro Matsuura, the Secretary-General of UNESCO, on Wednesday.

As a member of the inter-governmental committee, China would do more to further strengthen its efforts to safeguard the intangible cultural heritages and reinforce international cooperation to that end, the delegation said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)