ASSOCIATED PRESS in Stockholm

Saturday, February 24, 2001

During two days of discussions with Chinese officials, the European Union overnight (HK time) criticised the mainland's sentencing of opponents to forced labour, its widespread use of the death penalty and its continued persecution of the banned Falun Gong sect.

''The talks were frank,'' said Thomas Hammarberg, who led the EU delegation.

The Chinese delegation was led by Li Baodong, director of the Chinese foreign ministry's department of international organizations.

Mr Hammarberg said the Chinese delegation disagreed with the EU's criticism of the alleged ill-treatment and torture of Falun Gong supporters in police stations, but ''our response was that the ban against torture is universal''.

The delegations also spent a lot of time on the issue of Tibet, which the mainland has ruled since occupying the territory in 1950, and the status of Buddhists.

The Chinese officials indicated that China was preparing to allow representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisons, which Hammarberg described as a sign of progress.

Sweden currently holds the presidency of the 15-nation EU, which holds such talks on human rights with the mainland every six months.