This summer's Beijing Olympics will offer a "zero refusal policy" for media interview requests, state media said yesterday, as China tries to deflect criticism about its press controls in the run-up to the Games.

Organisers promised complete media freedom when they bid to host the Games, and while the reporting environment has improved for foreign journalists, the country has not relaxed its grip over domestic reporters, a policy criticised by rights groups.

"BOCOG will apply a zero refusal policy for interview requests, which means that all requests for interviews will be replied to," the China Daily quoted Liu Qi, president of the Beijing Organising Committee for August's Olympic Games, as saying.

But this week, officials banned foreign reporters covering the Olympic torch relay in the far western region of Xinjiang from interviewing people on the torch's route, and only let in a limited number of overseas media to cover its Tibet leg.

Both Xinjiang and Tibet are home to restive ethnic minorities, many of whom resent the growing economic and cultural grip of the dominant Han Chinese.