A high-ranking official from the Costa Rican Foreign Ministry will visit Beijing to begin the process of setting up an embassy in China within the next few days, Costa Rica's Presidency Minister Rodrigo Arias said on Wednesday.

Arias said there are a large number of potential candidates for the post of Costa Rica's ambassador to China, adding that only Oscar Arias, president of the country, can make that decision.

China and Costa Rica announced last Thursday that they had decided to established diplomatic ties after the Latin American country agreed to break official relations with China's province of Taiwan.

A joint communique, signed on June 1 by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and his Costa Rican counterpart Bruno Stagno Ugarte, says the two governments, "in accordance with the interests and aspirations of the peoples of the two countries, agree to establish diplomatic ties at ambassadorial level beginning June 1, 2007."

"The Costa Rican government recognizes that there is only one China and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the whole China. Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory," it says.

Costa Rican President Oscar Arias has said that the establishment of diplomatic relations with China and breaking ties with Taiwan reflected his country's "realistic" foreign policy.

Source: Xinhua