BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said here Thursday China "firmly" opposes Japan's proposal to revise UN dues assessments and set a minimum rate for permanent members of the Security Council.

    Japan presented a proposal to the UN General Assembly budget committee on March 10, saying each of the five permanent council members -- the United States, Russia, Britain, China and France --should contribute at least 3 percent or 5 percent of the UN budget.

    Under the proposal, China and Russia, whose dues currently account for 2.1 percent and 1.1 percent of the total, would pay much more each year.

    Spokesman Qin Gang said Japan's proposal attempts to replace the established principle of capacity to pay with the concept of responsibility to pay.

    "The Chinese government firmly opposes it," Qin said.

    Qin said the crux of Japan's proposal is to connect power with UN dues and thus enabling countries to buy power.

    "This will undermine the basic principle of sovereign equality in the UN Charter and severely infringe the interests of the developing countries," Qin said.

    Qin said the principle of capacity to pay was the basic principle in allotting UN fees and has proved to be effective. "It also reflects the consensus of all countries and should not be changed."

    Qin said China still has a very low per capita income despite its rapid economic development. "Even so, the percentage of China's UN dues ranked ninth among the UN members and China has always faithfully fulfilled its financial obligation to the United Nations."

    He said China has always paid its UN fees on time and it also shoulders its share of the cost of UN peace keeping as well as dues subtracted from other countries.

    "As China's economy grows, China is willing to make a greater contribution," he said.

    Qin said UN dues assessment has a direct bearing on UN's capacity to fulfill its responsibility.

    "We hope a fair and rational scheme, which is consistent with the UN Charter, will be reached based on broad consultation," he said.

    The scale of UN dues assessments is reviewed every three years and the General Assembly budget committee, where all 191 UN member states are represented, is due to determine the scale for the 2007-2009 period by the end of December.