"What we want to see is the development of human rights and greater democracy, not just because it is our system but because we think that's the best way that economic and political development go hand in hand," Blair told reporters.

He said Wen had acknowledged during their talks that political change must accompany economic growth but added that no timetable had been discussed.

Blair also met Wen for five hours on Monday because Britain holds the rotating presidency of the 25-member EU.

Blair said: "It's not that people resent China, but they've got a question mark because they see an economic powerhouse and ask, 'Will this developing economy be matched by political development and in the field of human rights?'"

With China set to become the world's second-largest economy in a decade, global stability depended on the willingness of Europe and others to keep markets open and rise to the challenge of China rather than treating it as a threat, he said.

"At the same time China has to understand that they [the West and others] see a new China emerging and want to know what kind of country they are dealing with," he said.

On Monday Wen said China's people may get the chance to directly elect their leaders at township level "in several years."

But Blair said: "There's an unstoppable momentum towards greater political freedom, progression in human rights. I think there's an understanding that should happen. Whether it does happen or not, obviously only time will tell."

Blair's spokesman said the two leaders also discussed the EU's embargo on arms sales to China as well as the EU's refusal to grant China market-economy status, which would give it greater protection from EU suits alleging cut-price dumping of exports.

"I think it is fair to call our meetings in-depth, practical, frank and productive ones," Wen told Blair at the start of their talks in the Great Hall of the People.

Stars of sport, arts and design joined Blair yesterday in capping a two-day visit to China with fresh initiatives to increase bilateral, cultural and educational exchanges.

Wen and Blair oversaw the signing of a major five-year cultural exchange agreement that British officials say will open the door to "large-scale cultural collaboration."

It incorporates steps towards cooperation between Beijing and London as they prepare to host the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.

Ballerina Darcey Bussell, architect Lord Norman Foster and Richard Curtis, writer of Notting Hill, were among those who gave masters classes around Beijing yesterday afternoon.

Bussell, principal dancer with the Royal Ballet, worked with second-year students at Beijing Dance Academy, while former England manager Sir Bobby Robson helped 30 to 40 young footballers hone their skills. Curtis lectured students at Beijing Film Academy while architect Lord Norman Foster discussed his work with 250 young architects and urban planners.

Beijing's claims of Xinjiang violence rejected by critics

AFP , BEIJING

China said yesterday that Muslim separatists in Xinjiang have killed more than 160 people in the past decade, but critics dismissed the claim as an attempt to justify its rule over a crucial Central Asian region.

Senior police officers were quoted in the media as saying the gravest terrorist threat right now was in Xinjiang, where separatists maintain ties with al-Qaeda and are attacking "soft targets."

"They have not only jeopardized China but also posed a threat to regional security and stability," said Zhao Yongchen, deputy director of the public security ministry's Anti-Terrorism Bureau, according to the Xinhua news agency.

Xinhua said separatists wishing to establish an independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang have committed 260 terrorist attacks since 1995, or roughly one every two weeks, killing 160 and injuring 440.

They now use poison and bombs to attack kindergartens and schools as part of a shift in overall strategy, Zhao told a conference on law issues in Beijing.

"The specific terrorist attack targets have shifted away from `hard targets' -- government or military facilities -- to `soft targets,' namely those less defended public places," he was quoted as saying.

The data may be inflated as the 260 incidents are likely to include several cases that would not normally be considered terrorist acts, according to Nicolas Becquelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher for Human Rights in China. He said Beijing's statements on terrorism in Xinjiang were an opportunistic attempt to silence foreign criticism of its rule in the region.

"They are a way to legitimize the very grave and serious violations of ethnic minorities' rights in Xinjiang, including religious freedom," he said. "The government uses terrorism as an excuse or an argument so that foreign countries don't look into what is happening in Xinjiang."

China sees Xinjiang as an invaluable asset because of its crucial strategic location near Central Asi, as well as its large reserves of oil and gas.

In the late 1990s China rarely described Xinjiang separatists as "terrorists," but that word has become part of the official Bei-jing vocabulary since Sept. 11, Becquelin said.

In an indication that China remains keen to link its problems in Xinjiang with the global war on terror, Zhao claimed the separatists have cross-border ties with terrorist organizations in Central Asia.

"They have close ties and even align with terrorist groups including the Taliban, the Uzbekistan Islamic Liberation Movement and al-Qaeda," he said.

China appears to have stepped up a crackdown on Xinjiang's Turkic-speaking Uighur minority as the government prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of its annexation of the region on Oct.1.

Law enforcerment personnel warned that more attacks were to be expected, according to the China Daily.

"A handful of heinous terrorists are still at large," said Feng Xiguang, spokesman for the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau.

Tiananmen mother has message for KMT head

By Wang Dan

On Aug. 25 Ding Zilin, leader of the Chinese Tiananmen Mothers movement, passed on a letter to me, through an intermediary, which I was to present to Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou. The letter has already been posted on an overseas Internet site, and although it is actually addressed to Ma, it is really for the eyes of the KMT as a whole. There are many ideas expressed in the letter that I believe the KMT should take note of, in particular Ding's take on the KMT's cooperation with Beijing.

The letter opens by thanking Ma for his long-term support over the Tiananmen Square massacre, before changing its tone and moving on to the issue of the KMT's policy regarding China. She says, "In all honesty, for many years now, I have become disillusioned with the KMT, not only because of their defeat in the 2000 presidential elections, but more because of their vacillating cross-strait policy. Former KMT chairman Lien Chan's visit to China in June of this year was, however, more than one could take. On one side we have Taiwan, with its constitutional government, and on the other we have Mainland China, still mired in a dictatorship. Isn't it ridiculous, in a world where democracy has become an irreversible force, that democratic Taiwan should bow down to, and pay obeisance to, dictatorial China?"

I have known Ding for many years now, and know her to be a gentle and refined person. Therefore, it came as quite a surprise to me when, referring to Lien's trip to China, she resorted to language such as "more than one could take," and "ridiculous." It is quite apparent just how rattled Ding was by the incident.

She offers the following suggestion to the KMT: "A politician, and in fact even a political party, can lose everything except for one thing: It cannot lose the courage to stand up to a stronger power."

Surely, the KMT would do well to take this advice to heart.

On accepting the position of KMT chairman, Ma took on a serious challenge: whether or not to continue on the "Lien Chan route." To this, Ding says, "as far as I can see, there is nothing complicated about cross-strait relations. When it comes down to it, it is a conflict between two systems. If talks are to be held, then everything should be laid out on the negotiating table, not just the three links, and not just fruit and pandas. They need to discuss human rights, they need to discuss political reform and they need to discuss freedom of the press. They certainly cannot limit the negotiations merely to issues that Beijing wants to talk about. On the contrary, the less Beijing wants to discuss a certain issue, the more important it is to broach it, as these issues tend to concern the welfare of the people."

This is no longer a mere suggestion: It is a heart-felt hope, it is sincere advice. However, one does wonder whether the KMT will actually listen.

For a long time now there has been a major blind spot in the way Taiwan has approached the cross-strait issue. It has paid exclusive attention to what the Chinese Communist Party is doing, while entirely ignoring what the Chinese people think about the issue. This shows a lack of understanding of China. In fact, as Ding has pointed out, "a more humane system is sure to take root in China eventually."

The Chinese communists may well represent today's China, but they certainly don't represent tomorrow's. Any Taiwanese politician with foresight should seek out, and listen to, the voice of the Chinese people, which even now is getting louder.

Wang Dan is a member of the Chinese democracy movement, a visiting scholar at Harvard University and a member of the Taipei Society.