Top Chinese official to attend Brezhnev funeral

Foreign Minister Huang Hua will represent China at the funeral of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. The trip will make Hua the most senior Chinese official to visit Moscow since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1960s.

In a separate development, China called on the new Soviet leadership Saturday to work toward improved Moscow-Peking relations. The appeal marked the most conciliatory statement on the issue since efforts resumed to end two decades of hostility.