The wife of jailed Chinese Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo slammed the government yesterday for keeping her under “illegal house arrest” after Washington and Brussels called for her release.

Liu Xia has been largely confined to her home since Friday when the Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded this year’s prize to her dissident husband for advocating political reform and respect for human rights in one-party China.

“I strongly protest against the government for my illegal house arrest,” Liu Xia said on her Twitter account, calling her situation “very hard to take”.

The US and the EU have both urged Beijing to let her move freely again, on top of their calls for Liu Xiaobo to be released from prison after he was sentenced last December to 11 years on subversion charges.

China, meanwhile, has reacted with fury to the award, directing the brunt of its anger at Oslo by cancelling ministerial meetings and a Norwegian musical scheduled to be staged in the country next month.

Liu Xia said earlier that two Norwegian diplomats had attempted to visit her on Tuesday but were turned back at the entrance to her apartment block, in comments that were confirmed by the Norwegian embassy.

The diplomats were “outside the gates of her compound, (having come) to check on her condition”, embassy spokeswoman Tone Helene Aarvik said, refusing to provide more details.

Liu Xia has said she hopes to travel to Norway to accept the award for her husband, who co-authored “Charter 08”, a bold call for political reform.

She told the Apple Daily that Liu would not plead guilty or strike a deal with Chinese authorities in order to leave the country to collect his award.