Jack Straw yesterday admitted that the European Union's plans to lift the arms embargo on China would create tensions with the US, acknowledging that London, Brussels and Washington would have to "manage those differences" in the next few months.

As the foreign secretary prepares for his first official meeting next week with Condoleezza Rice, incoming US secretary of state, he conceded in an interview with the Financial Times that the EU's plans to lift the embargo create a "presentational problem" with Washington but that the UK firmly backed the move.