Expert excluded from EU-China human rights forum (AP)

BEIJING ? The European Union says it deeply regrets China's exclusion of a human rights expert from a forum held in Beijing this week.

The EU office in Beijing said in a statement Thursday that it communicated its disappointment to the Chinese side, but it did not name the individual involved.

New York-based Human Rights in China said one of its experts who had been invited to represent the International Federation of Human Rights had been refused a visa to attend at the last minute.

It said it was told the Chinese Foreign Ministry regarded HRIC as an "anti-China" group whose participation in the seminar was "totally unacceptable."

China has sought to deflect criticisms of its human rights record by holding such closed-door forums.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110908/ap_on_re_as/as_china_eu_human_rights

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