China has urged the United States to rescind a section of the Omnibus Appropriations Act 2009 that does not allow for the lifting of the import ban on Chinese poultry products, according to an official source.

On 25 February, the US House of Representatives passed the $410 billion spending bill that would fund the federal government through September, the end of fiscal year 2009.

Section 727 said, "None of the funds made available in this Actmay be used to establish or implement a rule allowing poultry products to be imported into the United States from the People's Republic of China".

"This is a typical discriminatory and protectionist action and it is in serious violation of the World Trade Organization's most-favoured-nation treatment and general elimination of quantitative restrictions," Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said in a statement on the ministry's web site.

The clause seriously disturbed the normal poultry trade between the two nations and harmed the legitimate rights and interests of China's poultry industry, Mr Yao said.

China was strongly opposed to the section and urged the United States to abolish it, he said, adding China reserved the right to appeal to the WTO.