West must curb protests on China's human rights-Rogge

LONDON (Reuters) - The West must stop hectoring China over human rights, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge said in an interview.

"You don't obtain anything in China with a loud voice," Rogge told Saturday's Financial Times. "That is the big mistake of people in the west wanting to add their views".

"To keep face (in Asia) is of paramount importance. All the Chinese specialists will tell you that only one thing works -- respectful, quiet but firm discussion.

"Otherwise the Chinese will close themselves. That is what is happening today. There is a lot of protest, a lot of very strong verbal power, and the Chinese, they close themselves."

Rogge's warning came as China, which will host the August 8-24 Olympics in Beijing, announced it would hold talks with envoys of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism whom it blames for a wave of unrest, state media reported on Friday.

The move comes after concerted pressure from the West on China to talk to the Dalai Lama and marks the first serious step to defuse tensions aside from coming down hard on protesters and lambasting the Tibetans' spiritual leader.

Tibet has become a flashpoint for anti-China protests that have disrupted the Olympic torch relay around the world and has led to calls for state leaders to boycott the Beijing Games.

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"It took us 200 years to evolve from the French Revolution. China started in 1949," Rogge added, noting that was a time when Britain and other European nations were also colonial powers, "with all the abuse attached to colonial powers".

"It was only 40 years ago that we gave liberty to the colonies. Let's be a little bit more modest."

China may not be a role model in the west, said Rogge, but "we owe China to give them more time."

He said the IOC always believed awarding the Games to Beijing would "open up China" and in time this would happen.

"The Games, we believe, will have a good influence on social evolution in China, and the Chinese admit it themselves."

Rogge said his relations with Beijing were excellent, although "they have their priorities and we have ours." He added that sometimes those priorities contradict each other.

However, Rogge noted that the relationship had resulted in two policy changes by Beijing -- a media law allowing 25,000 foreign media access during the Games, and environmental measures to tackle the city's chronic pollution problems."

Rogge said China had given significant ground to the IOC by opening up access to the media, which he expected to be extended into 2009 and believed would be a key factor in the social evolution of the country.

"We have been able to achieve something I am not quite sure that heads of government have achieved much more than we have done," he added.

(Writing by Ken Ferris, Editing by Richard Williams)

("Countdown to Beijing Olympics" blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)