UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Jean-Marie Guehenno has praised China's "important and constructive role" in helping resolve the Darfur issue.

China is playing a "very important and constructive role" in the UN Security Council to end the fighting in the Darfur regions in western Sudan, Guehenno said after meeting top European Union (EU) officials, including EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, in Brussels on Monday.

Guehenno said he believed China could help push forward the efforts to find a political solution to and a negotiated agreement on the Darfur problem.