Cebu, January 13, 2007 -  China and other important Asian powers accused the United States on Saturday for overstepping by seeking a U.N. resolution against Myanmar, since  the Security Council was not the right forum to tackle the isolated Southeast Asian junta.

Military-run Myanmar, formerly called Burma, escaped censure at the United Nations Security Council on Friday after China and Russia vetoed a draft U.S. resolution calling on the regime to stop persecuting minority and opposition groups.

China, one of the five permanent Security Council members whose no-vote automatically kills a U.N. resolution, was tight-lipped about Myanmar's crackdown on pro-democracy activists and directed its criticisms at Washington's resolution, which it said did not warrant Security Council attention.

"The situation in Myanmar does not constitute a threat to regional and international peace and security," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing, according to the official Xinhua news agency on Saturday as per Reuters.

"If the Security Council passed a resolution on the Myanmar issue, that would have exceeded the duties of the Council laid out in the United Nations Charter."
The U.S. resolution urged Myanmar to release political prisoners, move toward democracy and stop attacks against minorities, many of whom are used for forced labour.