China Proposes New Rights Dialogue Before Olympics

BEIJING — China declared yesterday that it is willing to resume a long-stalled human-rights dialogue with America, apparently seeking to improve its image before this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi made the announcement at the close of talks with Secretary of State Rice, who passed through Beijing after attending the inauguration of President Lee of South Korea in Seoul on Monday.

Mr. Yang, a former ambassador to Washington, appeared to direct his announcement to American reporters accompanying Ms. Rice. Reading from notes, he said: "We are willing to resume the human rights dialogue. We are willing to have exchanges and discussions on human rights with the United States and other countries on the basis of mutual respect, equality and noninterference."

Ms. Rice, in a later briefing, welcomed the Chinese gesture and said American diplomats would seek to pin down a date for restarting the dialogue as soon as possible.

China suspended participation in the regular American-Chinese human-rights dialogue in 2004 after America sponsored a resolution at the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Commission urging condemnation of China's record.