China's former foreign minister Li Zhaoxing, 66, has been invited to join the staff of China's elite Peking University.

 

At a campus commencement ceremony for graduate students on Saturday, Xu Zhihong, president of Peking University, appointed Li professor in the School of International Relations, The Beijing News reports on Sunday.

 

Li, a native of Shandong Province, east China, was enrolled in the Department of Western Language and Literature at Peking University in 1959 and, after graduating in 1964, did three years of advanced study at Beijing Foreign Studies University.

 

Li, who retired in April this year, served as China's ambassador to the US between 1998 and 2001. He was appointed minister of Foreign Affairs in 2003.

 

Li was replaced as foreign minister by Yang Jiechi, another former ambassador to the US, in April.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2007)