China's foreign minister denied yesterday that anyone raising the human rights issue in relation to this summer's Beijing Olympics would be arrested.

His denial came as Britain's Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, insisted he had raised concerns over human rights during his first state visit to Beijing but reiterated his view that human rights should not be linked to the Olympic Games.

"People in China enjoy extensive freedom of speech," Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said after talks with Mr Miliband. "No one will get arrested because he has said human rights were more important than the Olympic Games. This is impossible."

The Chinese minister's comments came after questions about the case of Yang Chunlin, who went on trial last week on charges of "inciting subversion of state power" for protesting against the Olympics. The former factory worker from north-east China was detained last July after he circulated an online petition saying 'We want human rights, not the Olympics'.

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"Ask ten people from the street to face public security officers and ask them to say 'human rights are more important than the Olympics' ten times, or even a hundred times, and I will see which security officer will put him in jail," Mr Yang said. "If they've been talking for too long and get tired, the officer will offer him a cup of tea."

Mr Miliband said that "no opportunity has been wasted to raise issues of human rights."

"That includes individual cases of particular concern that bring to the fore the general issue of how the economic and social progress China has made over the last ten, twenty, thirty years can be matched by political progress," he said. He did not say if he had raised the recent Olympics-related case.

China's failure to pressure the Sudan government over the crisis in Darfur prompted Hollywood director Steven Spielberg to pull out as an artistic adviser for the Beijing games.

"We believe the Olympics are an opportunity to celebrate the progress that has been achieved in China. We look forward to them being a tremendous success," said Mr Miliband. "From our point of view, engagement, not isolation, is the right way forward."

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