China "regrets" Spielberg's Darfur decision

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"Linking the Darfur issue to the Olympic Games will not help to resolve this issue and is not in line with the Olympic spirit that separates sports from politics," the committee said in a statement.

The Global Times said even Chinese citizens who complain about losing homes to Games buildings opposed Western pressure.

Jin Canrong, an international relations expert at the People's University of China in Beijing, told the paper that the renewed criticism over Darfur showed Western powers were exploiting their "media hegemony" to whip up prejudice.

"Whoever uses this humanitarian issue to criticise China and put pressure on China gains something of a halo," Jin told the paper. "The West has seized on China's tremendous emphasis on the Olympic Games to criticise China."

Some 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in more than four years of conflict in Darfur, according to estimates by international experts. Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.

"China is also concerned about the humanitarian situation there and China has played an active role in pushing forward the peace process," Liu said.

"Holding up banners and shouting slogans will not solve the problem. What we need are concrete actions."

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Nick Mulvenney and Guo Shipeng, writing by Lindsay Beck; Editing by Nick Macfie and Jeremy Laurence)

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