Canada softens China political stance

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BEIJING, April 14 (UPI) -- A Canadian Conservative federal minister touring China made diplomatic overtures to warm relations by inviting officials to the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

Minister of International Trade Stockwell Day issued the unofficial invitations to Chinese Cabinet ministers in Beijing Monday in an apparent bid the defrost an apparent snub by Prime Minister Stephen Harper last year, who excused himself from attending the Olympic Summer Games, the Globe and Mail said.

Harper announced he couldn't attend soon after diplomatic protests over China's policy on Tibet and human rights issues were publicized in August.

Day is on a seven-day tour of China, which has the world's third-largest economy. The refusal by Harper to attend opening ceremonies of the Beijing Summer Games was widely perceived as a diplomatic snub, although German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also missed the ceremonies, the report said.

The newspaper said the Chinese Cabinet ministers were noncommittal about accepting the invitation to the Winter Games, a Globe correspondent said.