China has denied a visa for a former Norwegian prime minister to attend a religious meeting as China's displeasure still apparently lingers over the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to a Chinese dissident.

The World Council of Churches said today it was disheartened by the rejection of the visa for Kjell Magne Bondevik. He was to have been a moderator of the meeting this week in Nanjing.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2010 prize to imprisoned dissident Liu Xiaobo and called for his release. The committee is independent of the government and Bondevik last served as prime minister in 2005.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.