China's CIC eschews peripheral euro zone debt

China would be interested in buying into a Eurobond backed by core euro zone countries and considers investment in bonds issued by heavily indebted European countries unrealistic, a senior official with China's $480 billion sovereign wealth fund said.

Jin Liqun, chairman of the supervisory board of the China Investment Corporation (CIC), said until fundamental problems of fiscal, social and monetary policies in euro zone countries burdened by debt are solved, there could be no investment.

"It's not realistic to expect any Chinese investor, CIC included, to buy the bonds, which are not safe," Jin, a former vice finance minister of China, told Reuters on the sidelines of VTB Capital investment conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

"If the euro zone would issue a Eurobond backed by all of the (core) countries - it is more attractive to international investors."

(Reporting by Lidia Kelly; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Susan Fenton)