A Romanian opposition deputy said he would demand a parliamentary inquiry at the Foreign Ministry to see why Romania has been lacking an ambassador to China - a world economic power which Romania is courting - for nine months, news agency Mediafax reports.

Social Democratic (PSD) deputy Cornel Itu sent an open letter to Foreign minister Teodor Baconschi on Monday claiming that the latter's main responsibility is to develop diplomatic relations with all countries, not to promote such issues as the introduction of voting by mail or naming political clients in various positions.

Cornel Itu said he had asked for Baconschi's help in a Chinese investment of AVIC International, amounting to some 500 million euro, at a factory in the Romanian city of Dej, but he has yet to receive an answer.