Australia's Rudd meets Chinese premier

Australia's Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met China's premier Thursday for talks expected to touch on what Rudd has called significant human rights problems in Tibet.

Rudd on Wednesday became the second visiting world leader to urge China to engage critics and explore the underlying causes for the anti-government rioting that erupted last month across Tibetan-inhabited regions of western China.

The issue was not raised in opening remarks Thursday between Rudd and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

Wen said he hoped the visit would offer "further impetus to future growth of China-Australia relations," while Rudd responded by remarking on the vast changes in China since he served as an Australian diplomat in Beijing in the 1980s.

"We have come a long way and we can go a lot further," Rudd said.

On Wednesday, Rudd charmed an audience at the elite Peking University with his fluent Mandarin, saying he was opposed to calls for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics on human rights grounds.

He added, however, that it was necessary to "recognize that there are significant human rights problems in Tibet.

"As a long-standing friend of China, I intend to have a straightforward discussion with China's leaders on this," Rudd said.

Rudd was due to meet other leaders before flying Friday to the island province of Hainan to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao at an international economic forum.

Apart from Tibet, Rudd's visit was expected to focus on China's booming imports of Australian minerals and energy resources, as well as the sensitive issue of Chinese investment in Australia's mining sector.

China overtook Japan last year to become Australia's largest trading partner, and its voracious appetite for coal, gas and other resources has fueled Australia's unprecedented 17 successive years of growth.

Despite that, Australian officials have expressed rising concerns about Chinese investment; Canberra recently ruled against Chinese steelmaker Shougang's bid for a stake in iron ore developer Mount Gibson, although state-backed Sinosteel Corp. continues to pursue a $1.1 billion takeover bid for iron ore miner Midwest — the first hostile approach by a Chinese company for an Australian one.