China refuses to lift ban on key websites

Politically sensitive websites in China remained closed to foreign journalists today despite promises that all restrictions would be lifted during the Beijing Olympics.

Some sites relating to Tibet were blocked and links to the Falun Gong spiritual movement, banned and labelled an "evil cult" by the Chinese government, were still not working. Searches for sensitive phrases such as "Tiananmen Square" turned up sites that could not be accessed.

There has been a partial easing of restrictions, with easy access to previously blocked campaign group websites, i ncluding Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The BBC Chinese site was also unblocked.

But officials from the International Olympic Committee and from BOCOG, organisers of the Games, had claimed all restrictions would be lifted.

Beijing organisers said this week they had blocked internet access that "propagated information'' banned under Chinese law.

Human rights groups immediately accused them of breaking a pledge, made as part of their bid to secure the Games in 2001, to give reporters complete access.

Last night BOCOG held a crisis meeting with the International Olympic Committee, and this morning it was announced that all restrictions would be lifted. BOCOG spokesman Sun Weide declined to confirm restrictions had been eased, saying only that "at the moment the channel for reporters to use the internet is fully open".

Sophie Peer, China campaign coordinator for Amnesty International, said of the relaxation of restrictions: "We certainly haven't seen much giving in our work with this government."

China's president Hu Jintao told a group of journalists at a briefing today that his country would stand by pledges made when it was awarded the Olympics, and that China has "been working in real earnest to honour the commitments made".

Internet censorship is the latest of a series of issues, from human rights to China's policies in Darfur and Tibet, that have prompted international criticism.

Despite the row, Mr Hu made a plea for campaigners not to politicise the Games that many had hoped would lead the country of 1.3 billion people on a path towards greater political reform.

The pledge to create a more healthy Britain through the London Olympics suffered a blow today when the favourite to become the Government's sports legacy "czar" ruled himself out of the running.

Sir Keith Mills, the marketing tycoon and vice chairman of the 2012 organising committee, Locog, said he turned down the offer to become full-time chairman of Sport England due to other commitments.