EU won't ignore rights in China talks - Mandelson

The European Union will not ignore human rights concerns as it tries to do more business with China but boycotts are not the way to go, European trade chief Peter Mandelson said.

"Inevitably, people will ask how our trade relationship should sit in our wider political relationship with China," Mandelson told a Britain-China business chamber in London.

"I do not think that it is possible or desirable to wall off trade from the rest of our ties with China - including the issue of human rights, where we have legitimate influence to exert on China," the European Union's Trade Commissioner said in remarks prepared for delivery.

Mandelson is due to take part in a delegation of top EU officials on a visit to Beijing between April 24 and 26 for long-planned talks on a range of issues including trade. Mandelson, who has made improving trade ties with China an EU priority, said it was normal that "some on both sides of an issue like Tibet will call for boycotts of one kind or another".

"I do not support these because, while it is easy to see how they would hurt the interests of ordinary Europeans and Chinese, it is not possible to see how they would help," he said.

EU leaders have faced calls to stay away from this year's Olympic Games in Beijing as a protest against China's response to pro-independence unrest in Tibet.

The European Parliament last week urged leaders to boycott the opening of the Games unless China talks with the Dalai Lama.

In return, Chinese Internet users have called on local consumers to boycott Carrefour, the French retail giant they accuse of supporting funding for the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

"Modern China presents us with a dilemma," Mandelson said in his speech. "Our concerns, our protest, must go hand in hand with a strategy for ensuring that China continues to look outwards, to pursue internationalism."

Beijing and Brussels will establish a new "high-level mechanism" next week for dealing with trade and economic issues.

The EU has long complained that China remains too closed to European investment and business while the bloc's trade deficit with the Asian powerhouse surged to nearly 160 billion euros ($253 billion) last year, according to EU data.

Mandelson called on China to maintain the gradual strengthening of its currency to help Chinese consumers buy more imported goods and take other measures to boost local spending as well as do more to fight intellectual property theft.