China said on Tuesday it "welcomed" a World Trade Organization verdict involving its dispute on intellectual property rights with the United States while "regretted" part of the ruling related to copyright.

The IPR verdict, which was released on Monday by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB), involved the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (known as the TRIPS Agreement).

The WTO panel's report said "the United States has not established that the criminal thresholds are inconsistent with China's obligations under the first sentence of Article 61 of the TRIPS Agreement."

China "welcomed" this verdict, said Yao Jian, speaking for the Ministry of Commerce in a statement on the ministry's website on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the DSB failed to support the opinion of the Chinese side in part of its verdict on the disputes related to customs measures and the Copyright Law. Yao said China felt "regret" about this and "is making a further assessment of the DSB panel report."

Stressing that IPR protection was a global issue, Yao said China had always attached great importance to protecting IPR and in the past 30 years had made great strides in IPR laws, enforcement, education and international cooperation. In 2008, China worked out a national strategic program for IPR, Yao said.

(Xinhua News Agency January 27, 2009)