China's President Xi Jinping has said that multiparty democracy and development models of other countries "did not suit China" and would "lead to catastrophic consequences" if adopted by Beijing.

Xi, who began a decade-long term as President in March of last year, said the Communist Party of China (CPC) would "never stop" taking forward reforms, but at the same time as far as the ruling party was concerned the one-party political system would not change.

"China cannot copy the political system or development model of other countries because it would not fit us and it might even lead to catastrophic consequences," the State-run Xinhua news agency on Wednesday quoted Mr. Xi as saying, during a speech delivered to students a day earlier in Belgium, the final stop of an on-going four-nation European tour.

"Constitutional monarchy,

imperial restoration, parliamentarism, a multiparty system and a presidential system, we considered them, tried them, but none worked," Xi was reported as saying.

He, however, warned that China would not follow the political

systems of other countries. Doing so would "lead to catastrophic consequences," he said.

He drew a comparison with the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he attributed to "their idals and beliefs being shaken". "To dismiss the history of the Soviet Union and the Soviet Communist Party, to dismiss Lenin and Stalin, and to dismiss everything else is to engage in historic nihilism, and it confuses our thoughts and undermines the party's organisations on all levels," he warned.

"Some people define reform as changes towards the universal values of the West, the Western political system, or it will not constitute 'real' reform. This is a stealthy tampering of the concept and a misunderstanding of our