BEIJING -- Beijing's Olympic organizing committee said
Wednesday it didn't know Hollywood director Steven Spielberg might
be planning to resign as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Games.
Spielberg sent an open letter to President Hu Jintao in April
urging China to take a harder line against Sudan over the Darfur
crisis. Last week, ABC News and other U.S. media cited the
director's spokesman Andy Spahn as saying Spielberg was considering
dropping out of the Olympics because of China's inaction during the
crisis.
At a news conference Wednesday, the director of cultural
activities for the 2008 Beijing Olympics organizing committee was
asked to confirm Spielberg's possible exit.
"I was not aware of that," Zhao Dongming said. "I had not
heard of that."
More than 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million have been
uprooted in the ethnic conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan.
China, which imports two-thirds of Sudan's oil and sells arms to
Khartoum, has been criticized for supporting the African nation. It
has opposed United Nations sanctions.
The U.N. unanimously agreed Tuesday to send a 26,000-strong
peacekeeping force to Darfur by the end of this year.