President George W Bush will be attending the Olympic Games in Beijing this August despite the Chinese crackdown on Tibet, US officials said. Bush believes that the Olympics "should be about the athletes and not necessarily about politics", but he will probably make it a priority to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao during the Games to express his concerns, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Thursday.

"Any country that's going to be hosting the Olympics will have a bright light shined upon it," she said. "And it is a chance for that country to put its best face forward, and it's also a chance for other countries to learn more about the country."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Wednesday night and urged restraint in responding to an outpouring of anti-government demonstrations in Tibet and neighbouring provinces over the last week, Perino said.

Bush was informed of the conversation on Thursday morning. Rice shared "our views and concerns about the situation" and asked that Chinese authorities refrain from violence, she said. Rice also urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

The United States boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 in protest of the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet bloc responded by sitting out the 1984 games in Los Angeles.

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