BEIJING (AFP) — Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with Chinese President Hu Jintao Friday, telling China's leader that the Beijing Olympics had captured the world's imagination, Chinese state media reported.
Brown's Downing Street office had said he would raise the issue of human rights abuses with Chinese leaders, following Beijing's Chinese crackdown on unrest in Tibet that began in March and has drawn world criticism.
However, a Downing Street spokesman said he was not immediately able to comment on what the men discussed Friday.
Brown will attend the Games closing ceremony on Sunday during which the Olympic flag will be formally handed over by China to Britain. London is hosting the 2012 Olympics.
China's state news agency Xinhua said Brown praised the Beijing Olympics' "spectacular success" and that in 2012 London would try to follow the new standard set by Beijing.
"With the whole world watching, the Beijing Olympic Games have captured the imagination of the whole global community," Brown was quoted as saying.
Hu thanked Brown for showing his support for the Beijing Games when he welcomed the Beijing Olympic flame at his residence at 10 Downing Street in April, the report said.
The London leg of the Olympic torch relay was marred by scuffles with police and Chinese security officials guarding the flame on its route around the capital.
Brown, who has said he was "unhappy" about China's actions in Tibet in March, rejected pressure at home for him to boycott the Games to protest China's human rights abuses.
Brown said Britain hoped to work with China on tackling climate change, world trade talks and helping Africa meet UN millennium development goals, Xinhua said.
The millenium goals include halving extreme poverty, halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education by 2015.
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