Boycott China, urges Sir Paul

He urged his fans not to buy Chinese goods and to boycott the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Describing China's treatment of animals as 'uncivilised', he compared it to the treatment of black people in apartheid South Africa.

His criticism came after the former Beatle was shown film of animals being killed in a fur market in the city of Guangzhou, southern China.

But it drew an angry response from the Chinese Embassy in London. A spokesman cast doubt on whether the footage - which is due to be broadcast tonight in a special report on BBC1's Six O'Clock News - was genuine.

'Sir Paul should be calling for a boycott of the fashion industry using fur in the European and American markets,' he added.

In the film, shot by the pressure group People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals, dogs and cats are shown being thrown from a bus on to a concrete pavement.

The animals, many with their bones broken from the fall, howl with pain as they are picked up with long metal tongs and thrown over a 7ft high fence to be killed. Some appear to be still alive when skinned.

Sir Paul, a vegetarian and vocal animal rights campaigner, said: 'This is barbaric. It's like something out of the Dark Ages.

'I wouldn't even dream of going over there to play, in the same way I wouldn't go to a country that supported apartheid. This is just disgusting. It's against every rule of humanity.'

As the world's biggest fur producer, China is estimated to kill more than two million cats and dogs for their skins every year.

Sir Paul's boycott will be a major blow to the Chinese authorities, who are highly sensitive to how the country is portrayed abroad as it prepares to host the Olympics.

'People think because China is going to host the Olympics then they must be coming into the modern world, but then you see this sort of stuff,' the 63-year-old singer said.

'If they want to consider themselves a civilised nation, they're' going to have to stop this.'

His wife, Heather Mills McCartney, urged consumers to boycott Chinese goods in protest, saying: 'If we can hit them in their pockets, maybe they'll do something to stop this.'