Sarkozy not welcome at Olympics, say China media

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China made a barely veiled swipe at French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday and state media warned he can expect a cold public shoulder if he attends the Beijing Olympics after he threatened not to go over Tibet.

Sarkozy has said he will decide next week whether to attend the opening of the Games in August, with his choice depending on how talks go between Beijing and the Dalai Lama's envoys.

China often lashes out at foreign leaders for meeting the exiled Dalai Lama or criticising its policies in Tibet, which it calls an internal affair.

In a sign of growing rancour in Beijing, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman and official newspapers took swipes at Sarkozy, whose government assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union on Tuesday.

"The Olympic Games should not be politicised and that spirit should be respected by all the members of the Olympic family," the spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference.

"We absolutely will not accept any politicisation of the Olympic Games, or linking the Olympics to political issues. Any attempts to meddle in China's internal affairs will fail."

Liu refused to directly say whether his comments were aimed at Sarkozy. But he said they were intended to "clarify" remarks he made on Tuesday, which were in answer to a question about the French president.

Official Chinese media were even blunter.