CHINA has blocked Jinzhou Port Co.’s plan to purchase a stake in domestic telecom firm Jitong Communications Co., the port operator said Saturday.

　　Jinzhou had planned to buy 314.2 million Jitong shares from Beijing television-tube maker Cai Hong Group Corp., the corporate parent of Cai Hong Display Co., the port operator said in a statement published in the Shanghai Securities News.

　　A document from the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Information Industry stopped the purchase, the company said.

　　“The document showed that since February 2001 Cai Hong Group’s transfer of share rights and other activities have not confirm to government regulations,” it said.

　　The statement did not elaborate on how the regulations had obstructed the deal. Company officials were not available for comment.

　　In April 2001, Jinzhou said it had planned to buy 294.4million shares in Jitong, which would account for 14.72 percent of the telecom firm’s registered capital. Later in the year, the port operator said it planned to increase that stake.

　　Jinzhou Port, based in the northeastern province Liaoning, and Cai Hong Group are now acting according to requirements stated in the document to revoke the share transfer plans, it said.

　　Jinzhou’s B shares, open to foreign and domestic investors, closed US$0.006 lower at US$0.677 Friday.

　　Jitong is part of China Netcom Group, one of the two carriers formed after the country’s fixed-line phone giant China Telecom was split in May in a restructuring plan intended to boost competition and prepare the industry for foreign investment.

　　(SD-Agencies)