THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said China's human rights record must improve and that the Beijing Olympics should be used as an opportunity to press for change.

"Improving human rights in China is and remains a goal of Dutch policy, as is a successful Olympic Games," Verhagen said Thursday. "Those two goals do not conflict with one another.

"People say that the Olympic Games give a great opportunity to improve the human rights situation in China because China is now more susceptible to foreign pressure," he added. "That is true."

The very fact that the Foreign Ministry organized the debate, which also featured the head of the Netherlands Olympic Committee and a Dutch representative of human rights group Amnesty International, annoyed the Chinese.

Ambassador Xue Hanqin wrote in an editorial piece in national daily de Volkskrant that she disapproved of a connection between "political issues" and the Olympics.

"We find it even less acceptable that China's image in the Western world is damaged with unfounded claims. Such behavior is not in the Olympic spirit and above all hurts the feelings of the Chinese people," she wrote.

Thursday's meeting was called after a popular local comedian called for a boycott of the games to protest China's human rights record. Among those who spoke were representatives of the spiritual movement Falun Gong, which is banned in China, and activists protesting China's treatment of Tibetans.

Verhagen said he opposed a boycott, even though he conceded that China appeared to have become more repressive in its treatment of human rights groups, press freedom and freedom of speech.

"We have a good dialogue with China that is bearing fruit," he said. "Dialogue achieves more than a boycott."