China does not accept French President Nicolas Sarkozy's use of "European values" as an excuse to justify his meeting with the Dalai Lama.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, seen, Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2008, at the European Parliament in Strasbourg eastern France after Sarkozy made a final appearance at European Parliament as his presidency of the European Union comes to an end.[Agencies]

Sarkozy is "misusing the values as an excuse for his action that has hurt the fundamental interest" of China and its people, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said on Tuesday.

"France is a great nation and I believe French values are not aimed at hurting the interests of others," he said.

Liu made the remarks when asked about Sarkozy's recent remarks that he would like to restart dialogue with China, but "not at the price of renouncing our own European values".

Sino-French ties have soured because of Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama earlier this month. He was the first European leader to do so while holding the rotating European Union (EU) presidency.

China postponed the annual China-EU meeting scheduled for earlier this month in protest against Sarkozy's action. Beijing said Sarkozy should take the blame for souring of ties and urged him to take corrective steps to mend them.

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China is well within its rights to block websites with content that are illegal under Chinese law and they include sites that refer to Taiwan as a "separate country", Liu said.

"Some websites continue to have content that violate Chinese law," he said.

If a website refers to 'two Chinas' or refers to the mainland and Taiwan as two independent regions, it violates China's Anti-Secession Law.

(China Daily via Agencies December 17, 2008)