Games boycott over Darfur dismissed

She told The Times newspaper: "The world has known for the last seven years that Beijing would host the Olympics. Most progressive governments accept that there are wholly unacceptable aspects of Chinese policy but that did not stop the International Olympics Committee awarding them the Games.

"A call for a boycott doesn't serve any purpose and it would be a great pity. This doesn't mean, however, we should be distracted from the urgency of Darfur."

Meanwhile, China said that "ulterior" motives were behind some criticism of its actions in Sudan, and that the problems there should not be linked with this summer's Olympics in Beijing.

The comments from Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao came a day after Hollywood director Steven Spielberg's decision to drop out as a Beijing Olympics adviser on human rights grounds.

"It is understandable if some people do not understand the Chinese government policy on Darfur, but I am afraid that some people may have ulterior motives, and this we cannot accept," he said.

Eight Nobel laureates are among the signatories of a letter to the Chinese president Hu Jintao calling for urgent action on Darfur.

The letter, also signed by Olympic athletes, government officials and business leaders, outlines that as host of the 2008 Olympic Games, China has a "special role to play in the Olympic ideals of peace and international co-operation".

According to the letter's signatories, China doubled its trade with Sudan in 2007, "providing resources that make it easier for that government to continue to carry out its atrocities".

Published in The Independent newspaper, the letter states: "The atrocities in Darfur continue to intensify. Of the seven million inhabitants of Darfur, hundreds of thousands have already died due to the conflict and 2.5 million have been displaced. Rape and sexual violence have been and continue to be used as weapons of war against untold numbers of girls and women."