China has turned down India's request to declare Masood Azhar, chief of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed group, a terrorist and be sanctioned by the UN Security Council's 1267 committee. Chinese officials told their Indian counterparts that theirs was a "technical" hold. No amount of Indian explanation that the decision was "political" succeeded in persuading the Chinese. India held its last round of talks on the subject of Azhar with the Chinese during last weekend's boundary talks between national security adviser MK Narayanan and China's state councilor, Dai Bingguo. It was in mid-July that India asked China, by then the only country to put a "hold" on Azhar's ban, about its decision to block the declaration. According to top level officials, China had reportedly said they had not seen all the information. Consequently, India sent along a lot of information that it thought would help in persuading China. In fact, after the Xinjiang unrest in early July, India believed, China would have a greater understanding of Islamic terrorism. But China's decision, said officials, continues to be led by its relations with Pakistan, which has housed Masood Azhar. In December, it was only after Pakistan gave the go-ahead that China lifted its hold on Laskar-e-Taiba chief Mohammed Hafiz Saeed. Saeed was put on the "consolidated" list of the UNSC's 1267 committee after which Pakistan put him under house arrest. On Masood Azhar, UK had initially joined China in placing a "hold" on the three names that India had sent to the 1267 sanctions committee -- the others being Azam Cheema and Abdul Rahman "Makki". UK lifted its hold after India protested diplomatically. Pakistan last week declared that it had banned 25 terror organizations operating on its soil, among them Jaish-e-Mohammed (which was renamed Jamaat-ul-Furqan after being banned by Pervez Musharraf in 2002) and Khuddam-ul-Islam, another India-centric group started by Azhar.