China slams "meddling" after Myanmar boycott call

BEIJING (Reuters) - China repeated its stand on Tuesday that this year's Beijing Olympics should not be subject to political meddling in response to a boycott call by a Myanmar opposition group.

The 88 Generation Students organization urged the boycott in protest against what it called China's "bankrolling" of the Myanmar military government that crushed pro-democracy protests last year.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a news conference the August 8-24 Games were a big event for China and the world.

"It should not be politicized," he said. "Political excuses should not be used to meddle in it."

The Myanmar activists, who emerged from early anti-government protests in 1988, said Beijing was the junta's "major trade partner, major arms supplier and major defender".

"The military junta in Burma is still in power to this day, despite strong and continuous resistance by the people of Burma, because of China's support", the group said in a statement, referring to Myanmar by its former name.

International groups critical of China's restrictions on political rights and its role in the Darfur region of Sudan and other humanitarian trouble spots have criticized the Beijing Games, with some urging boycotts.

Film director Steven Spielberg withdrew from his advisory role with the Beijing Games over the Darfur issue two weeks ago. But a boycott like the one that hit the 1980 Moscow Games and the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics remains unlikely.

President George W. Bush has already accepted an invitation to attend the Games and said he viewed the Olympics as a purely sporting event.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown will also be in Beijing in August, while Foreign Secretary David Miliband said before his trip to China this week that he was opposed to a boycott.

An ICM opinion poll in the Guardian newspaper last Friday said 72 percent of Britons thought its team should attend the Games with only 19 percent favoring a boycott.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Mulvenney and Nick Macfie).