Any possible pressure on China regarding its Tibet policy must be taken by the European Union as a whole and not its individual members, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Wednesday.
Calling for ''joint measures'' such as inviting the Dalai Lama to Brussels, the foreign minister criticised a ''confused and unproductive'' debate on whether a boycott of the opening ceremony at this summer's Olympics in Beijing might produce results.
He did not cite French President Nicolas Sarkozy's statement that this remained among the possible options.
Nor did D'Alema refer to calls by Italian politicians to boycott the entire Games.
But he did stigmatise ''a rush to make individual statements in order to earn a headline in the newspapers,'' stressing that ''they do not exert any pressure on the Chinese''.
D'Alema said that Italy's stance on Tibet had remained the same for years: ''to exert pressure to stop the logic of repression and start up dialogue'' between China and the Dalai Lama.
Inviting the Dalai Lama to Brussels, he said, would be ''a great political message''.
China on Wednesday urged Sarkozy ''not to politicise'' the Olympics.
Chinese government spokesman Qin Lang also criticised two French ministers who said the Dalai Lama - who has been in exile in India since 1959 - should be received by French government members during his upcoming visit to France.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday that Chinese ''repression'' in Tibet ''cannot be tolerated''.
French Minister for Human Rights Rama Yade said she would ''definitely'' receive the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.
Qi Long reiterated the Chinese government's stance that the two weeks of unrest in Tibet had been ''organised by the Dalai Lama and his clique''.
Qi said the Dalai Lama was not a spiritual leader but ''a political refugee engaged in secessionist activities''.
A Tibetan exile group, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD), said Tuesday the two-week uprising in Tibet had left 79 dead, 100 missing and 1,200 people in jail.
The TCHRD said it was ''seriously concerned'' about the people who had been arrested, ''in particular those accused of being the 'instigators'''.
The Tibetan government-in-exile in India said earlier this week that the crackdown had claimed ''about 140 lives''.
China says 18 civilians and two policemen were killed by protesters.
In the world of sport, French world-record swimmer Alain Bernard's call for boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony has fallen on deaf ears here.
Italian swim ace Massimiliano Rosolino said ''I'm not boycotting China as long as Italy is doing business with it'' while top gymnast Igor Cassina wondered ''why they didn't think about it before now''.
Athletics legend Sara Simeoni, who won the high jump at the partially boycotted Moscow Olympics in 1980, said: ''I have to put myself in the athletes' shoes. I think a boycott now would be like a delayed-action bomb. And it wouldn't change anything''. Italian soccer great Gigi Riva dismissed the idea of a boycott, saying ''the fault isn't with the athletes who want to go to the Olympics but with the choice of Beijing in the first place''.
