Olympic ceremony boycott a "cop out": White House

By Randall Mikkelsen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A boycott of Olympic ceremonies by world leaders over China's crackdown in Tibet would be an evasion of responsibility and less effective than quiet diplomacy, the U.S. national security adviser said on Sunday.

The remarks by White House adviser Stephen Hadley come as a challenge to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has said she will not attend the opening ceremony of this year's Beijing Olympics, and to those calling for President George W. Bush and other leaders to do the same.

"I think unfortunately a lot of countries say 'well, if we say we are not going to the opening ceremonies, we've checked the box on Tibet' -- that's a cop out," Hadley said on "Fox News Sunday."

"If other countries are concerned about Tibet they ought to do what we are doing, through quiet diplomacy," he said. "They would put pressure on Chinese authorities, quietly, to meet with representatives of the (exiled Tibetan spiritual leader) Dalai Lama and use this as an opportunity to help resolve this situation."

Bush has said he plans to go to the Olympic Games in August, although the White House has not said whether he will attend the opening ceremonies. Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican candidate John McCain have said Bush should consider an opening-ceremony boycott.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has indicated he may not attend, and the European Parliament has passed a resolution calling for European Union leaders to consider boycotting the ceremony due to the crackdown in Tibet.

Dissatisfaction with the level of China's pressure on Sudan to end violence in the Darfur region has also fueled calls to boycott the opening ceremony.

U.S. speedskating gold medalist Joey Cheek, who co-founded the Team Darfur international athlete's coalition, said on Fox that the sort of quiet diplomacy favored by the Bush administration has not worked in Darfur.