The International Olympic Committee, under fire for not speaking out on China's human rights record before the Beijing Games, vigorously defended its policy of non-involvement in politics yesterday.

IOC member Hein Verbruggen said the implication in an Amnesty International report this week that awarding the 2008 Games to China had made human rights worse was "blatantly untrue".

The Dutchman, chairman of the IOC's inspection commission for the Beijing Games, also attacked politicians who talked about boycotting the opening ceremony of the Aug. 8-24 Games after doing big business deals with the Chinese.

"We are not a political organisation, so in spite of all the criticism we get, I am not afraid to tell you that we should not speak out on political issues," he said at a news conference at the end of the final IOC inspection.

Amnesty said on Wednesday the Olympics had so far failed to catalyse reform in China and pledges to improve human rights before the Games looked disingenuous after a string of violations in Beijing and a crackdown in Tibet.

"To say the Games contribute to a worsening situation in human rights, I would call that blatantly untrue," Verbruggen said.

Past boycotts

Verbruggen said involvement in the internal politics of Olympic host countries would lay the Games open to the sort of boycotts that blighted the 1980 Moscow Olympics and 1984 Los Angeles Games. He also said any decision to boycott the opening ceremony, or the Olympics themselves, should be made by athletes and not by politicians.

"I have very little admiration for politicians that come here to sign big business contracts and three or four months later say, 'perhaps I won't come to the opening ceremony'," he said.

"The athletes have more than enough information to make up their own minds."