LONDON (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to raise human rights issues with Chinese leaders when he attends the Olympic Games in Beijing, he said in a letter released Wednesday.
Brown will meet President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao and insisted that British support for the games was "not at the expense of human rights."
In a letter to the leader of Britain's third party Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg released by Brown's office, Brown said that supporting China as it bids to re-engage with the world was "firmly in our national interest".
Human rights groups repeatedly raised concerns about China's rights record in the run-up to the games, with Amnesty International saying the Olympics had made the situation worse, not better.
"When I am in Beijing... I will make clear to President Hu and Premier Wen that respect for human rights matters to us every year, not only the year of the Olympics," he said in the letter.
"I am looking forward to constructive discussion of these issues with the Chinese leadership during my visit to Beijing."
Brown, who is to attend the closing ceremony at the Beijing Games on Sunday, also hailed the games as a "milestone in China's re-emergence onto the world stage," adding that supporting this was "firmly in our national interest".
He said he had urged talks between China and exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and offered to help bring the two sides together.
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