The comments could add to the contentious issues that will come up during Hu's visit, notably what some U.S. politicians and companies see as currency manipulation by China, accused of holding down the yuan to gain an unfair trade advantage.

Hong Kong's Beijing-funded Wen Wei Po newspaper carried Cheng's comments, made in Hong Kong on Monday.

"China can stop buying dollar-denominated bonds, increase buying of U.S. products and gradually reduce its holdings of U.S. bonds," the newspaper quoted him as saying. "But all these must follow the prescribed order," he said, without setting out that sequence.

An official at the central bank said this was merely Cheng's personal opinion and a reporter present for the speech said Cheng had stressed he was expressing his own views.

"The comments only reflected his academic view. The People's Bank of China has been studying issues regarding the management of foreign exchange reserves," the central bank official told Reuters.

Cheng is one of more than 10 vice chiefs of the parliament, as well as chairman of the China Democratic National Construction Association, one of eight minor political parties loyal to the Communist Party.

His rank is equivalent to vice premier, outranking cabinet ministers, and he often speaks on economic issues, but he does not exercise direct control over government policy.

"Cheng Siwei is a scholar and at the same time a national leader," said Zhang Zuhua, a former official familiar with the workings of the government. "He often expresses his views as an expert, and doesn't just give bureaucratic talk.

VISIT TO WASHINGTON

Hu meets U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on April 20. U.S. officials say Hu's visit will focus on trade issues as the Bush administration seeks to narrow its trade gap with China, which hit a record $202 billion in 2005.

Analysts say China has been gradually diversifying away from dollar assets in its foreign exchange reserves but fears of a collapse in the U.S. currency will prevent it from making any dramatic shift.

It has been a big buyer of U.S. government bonds, helping to finance the U.S. current account deficit and keep American interest rates low. Investors watch closely for any sign that Beijing might shift the government's investment mix.

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan said last month that China would adjust the mix of its reserves in light of global market conditions. In doing so, China's criteria would be safety, liquidity and profitability, in that order.

China's foreign exchange reserves hit $854 billion at the end of February, Premier Wen Jiabao said in a speech published in the official People's Daily on Tuesday, confirming a previously reported figure.

China held $262.6 billion of U.S. Treasuries as of January, dwarfed by Japan's holding of $668.3 billion, according to U.S. Treasury data.

Chinese officials have denied reports they plan to cut the current volume of dollar assets and analysts say China may have to buy more U.S. assets as the country's foreign exchange reserves have been growing rapidly, driven by the inflows of dollars from its trade surplus, foreign investment and hot money.

The central bank buys dollars to ensure the yuan does not rise too sharply after last year's landmark revaluation. Those dollars, along with assets in other foreign currencies, accumulate in its reserves.

Cheng also said China should widen the yuan's trading band at an appropriate time, the newspaper said.

But China must keep the yuan "relatively" stable in the near term and avoid an "excessively" high rise in foreign exchange reserves, he said.

The country would make the yuan fully convertible in the longer term, but it still did not have a timetable, Cheng said.

Just hours before the opening of the new Parliament, the prime minister took time out to be the keynote speaker at a conference of the Canadian Professional Police Association at Ottawa's Chateau Laurier hotel.

Harper reiterated campaign promises to impose mandatory minimum prison sentences for drug crimes, weapons offences and crimes committed while on parole. He also spoke of his government's plan to end conditional sentences for serious crimes such as weapons offences.

"If you do a serious crime, you're going to do serious time," he said to applause.

"It's quite remarkable the prime minister has found the time for us," said association president Tony Cannavino, who noted that it was the first time a PM had ever addressed a conference of the police association.

Harper told about 150 front-line police personnel representing 54,000 members that his government will scrap the former Liberal government's draft legislation to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana.

The bill would have allowed people found with small amounts of the drug to avoid a criminal record. They would have instead faced fines.

Harper received sustained applause when he spoke of his government's intention to repeal the so-called faint hope clause - a section of the Criminal Code that allows a criminal serving a life sentence to apply for early parole.

"I thought we might find a responsive audience here," the PM quipped.

Both Harper, and Justice Minister Vic Toews, who also addressed the gathering, promised to find a way to put more officers on the street.

Harper said his government will fund the initiative through cost-sharing programs with municipalities and savings from scrapping the federal gun registry.

Toews said he was proud to say that his first public speech on justice issues as minister of justice was being delivered to the association.

"As always, your opinions and expertise are greatly valued," he said.

The issue of crime is one of the five priorities the newly elected Conservative government has targeted for the legislative session that begins Monday. Ethics, health care, tax cuts and child care round out the agenda.

The influential daily newspaper, Berliner Zeitung, said on Saturday that it would be almost impossible to have the Auschwitz Concentration Camp renamed. The concentration camp in Auschwitz was regarded as a lasting symbol and reminder for humanity of the universal threat of genocide. It should not be narrowly associated with the historical national socialist Nazi regime in Germany, the newspaper commentary added.

The Polish government made the request to change the official name of "Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp" to "Former Nazi German Concentration Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau" in March, aiming to remind the world that the death camp was built and run by Nazi Germany.

The government in Warsaw wanted the grim history of the Auschwitz site, listed as a UNESCO world heritage site, to be separated from Poles or Poland. It said it expected an answer to its renaming request later this year.

A senior police officer at a West Rand police station first shot dead three women and a one-year-old baby and then went on to wipe out four senior colleagues around 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Monday, local media reported on Tuesday.

Superintendent Chippa Mateane, 42, was shot dead by police in Sebokeng around 4 a.m. (0200 GMT) on Tuesday morning after an extensive manhunt, the SAPA news agency reported..

Blood spattered dockets lay strewn around the detective's offices at Kagiso police station in Krugersdorp after the rampage killing. Three of the officers were shot in an office -- two in the head and one in the chest -- and another officer's body was found lying outside the office with a bullet wound to the chest.

The three were found lying under a table scattered with dockets,with three bullet holes marking the wall behind the table.

A police spokeswoman said the man had shot dead three women anda one-year-old baby about half an hour before he made his way to the police station. Another women was wounded and taken to hospital.

Senior Superintendent Mary Martins-Engelbrecht said it was not clear what caused the killing spree as it was difficult to collect information from people who were visibly traumatized, the SAPA said.

"Everyone (at the police station) is devastated and doesn't know why," an officer told SAFM radio.

The shooting spree took place as safety experts from some 120 countries converged in the eastern port city of Durban for the 8th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion.

A study by the University of South Africa showed during the conference that in the country, death rate due to violence was more than six times higher than the global rate.

The study showed gunshot injuries made up 46 percent of violence-related deaths in South Africa. Of the 6,167 firearm deaths recorded in 2004, 86 percent were violence-related, 13 percent were suicides and less than 1 percent were unintentional.

The police spokeswoman told SABC radio news the man had fled the scene in a police car which he later abandoned. He made his way to Sebokeng where he allegedly shot his brother who is in hospital in a critical condition. Police managed to track him down and shoot him.

UN mediator Albert Rohan, who chaired Monday's session, said stark differences remained on both sides, though they had reached consensus on certain issues.

Monday's discussions were based on a report drafted by the UN office on the status of Kosovo, after summarizing the results of the previous two talks. They focused on the financing of the Serb minority in Kosovo, municipal boundaries, and the relations between Kosovo's Serb minority and Serbia.

Both sides expressed reservations with the contents of the report, according to local media reports.

After the Kosovo war ended in June 1999, the province became a UN protectorate according to Resolution 1244 of the UN Security Council.

Ethnic Albanians, who comprise over 90 percent of the province's population, insist on full independence. But Serbia insists Belgrade must retain sovereignty over the province.

The UN-mediated negotiation process on the status of Kosovo started last November, and two round of talks were held in Vienna in February and March. The two sides will meet again in Vienna on May 4 for the fourth round of talks.

Maghout's work combined satire with descriptions of social misery and malaise, illustrating what he viewed as an ethical decline among rulers in the region.

He teamed up with Syrian actors Dureid Laham and Nihad Qali to produce some of the region's most popular and acclaimed theatrical works, such as "Exile."

"Policemen, Interpol men everywhere; you search for the perfect crime," Maghout wrote in one of his poems. "There is only one perfect crime; to be born an Arab."