By Joyce Pangco Pa?ares

CHINA has canceled a scheduled high-level meeting with President Arroyo amid a diplomatic row over the disputed Spratly Islands.

Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said Mrs. Arroyo was supposed to meet with Li Jianguo, vice chairman and secretary general of China?s National People?s Congress, today at the Palace, but the meeting had been postponed ?indefinitely.?

?The visit has been postponed due to urgent matters at home,? Remonde said in an interview after yesterday?s Cabinet meeting in Misamis Oriental.

?We believe the postponement had nothing to do with the Baseline Law,? he said.

?Our diplomatic relations with China remain strong.?

A Palace source said the Chinese Embassy sent a letter confirming the meeting?s ?indefinite postponement.?

In an earlier interview before the Cabinet meeting, Remonde announced that the meeting between Mrs. Arroyo and Jianguo would discuss the territorial dispute over the Spratlys in very broad terms.

?He will not come specifically because of that incident. His visit has long been scheduled, but just the same, it?s indicative of the very high and very good diplomatic relations between our country and China,? Remonde said.

?There is a bigger dragon to slay than individual border disputes. There are larger issues that the leaders of the world today are more concerned with and to me, these are the reasons why we believe we really do not need to overreact [to the diplomatic row].?

A check with Malaca?ang?s appointment officials revealed that the Chinese Embassy had cancelled the meeting.

Last week, China protested the signing of the Baseline Law, which classifies the disputed Spratly Islands and Scarborough Shoal as ?regime of islands under the Republic of the Philippines.?

Chinese assistant foreign minister Hu Zhengyue summoned Philippine Ambassador to China Sonia Brady days after the signing of the baseline bill. Over the weekend, Beijing sent a fishery patrol boat to the Spratlys.

In the House of Representatives, a leftist lawmaker said the administration should not use the row with China to justify the continuation of its Visiting Forces Agreement with the United States.

?It does not constitute a sufficient ground to continue with the unequal agreement,? Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza said.

But Para?aque Rep. Roilo Golez said the deployment of a Chinese patrol ship did not appear to be related to the Baseline Law, but Beijing?s own standoff with the United States over vessels in the South China Sea.

Golez repeated his call to settle all disputes with diplomacy rather than force.

?The baseline issue is the province of diplomats, not admirals and generals,? he said. With Roy Pelovello