Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- China said it felt ``regret'' over movie director Steven Spielberg's assertion that the country should do more to end conflict in Sudan's Darfur region.

Spielberg yesterday cut his ties with the Beijing Olympic Games, saying his ``conscience wouldn't allow him to continue with business as usual.'' He called for the international community, and China in particular, to do more to avert the violence in the northeast African country.

``China is also concerned about the humanitarian situation in Darfur,'' Liu Jianchao, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said at a briefing in Beijing today. ``Empty rhetoric will not help. What's more important is to help peace programs and eliminate humanitarian crises.''

Ethnic and political violence in western Sudan has taken the lives of as many as 400,000 people and left 2.3 million homeless, according to the Web site Save Darfur. China is under pressure to help because it is Sudan's top trading partner, with investments in the country's oil fields.

Spielberg, director of films including ``Munich'' and ``Saving Private Ryan,'' initially agreed to become an artistic adviser for the opening and closing ceremonies at the Aug. 8-24 Olympics -- the first to be staged in China.

He said yesterday he had left the contract unsigned for a year because of concern over China's failure to press for change in Darfur. Liu also noted Spielberg, 61, had never signed an agreement.

``We feel regret over his remarks,'' Liu said at today's briefing. ``We believe the Chinese people have adequate wisdom to carry out a smooth Olympics.''

Standstill

Human rights groups are using the Olympics to pressure China on issues from freedom of speech to its role in Sudan.

Spielberg said in a statement yesterday he will use time that would have been spent on the Olympics to seek an end to the conflict in Darfur. Negotiations aimed at ending the violence that began in February 2003 are near a standstill, United Nations envoy Jan Eliasson said this month.

Amnesty International has called on the International Olympic Committee to demand China take action on the use of the death penalty, detention without trial and restrictions on freedom of expression.

IOC President Jacques Rogge said in November the government in Beijing was making satisfactory progress and that the games were helping move ``Chinese society in the right direction.'' He has also said the Olympics can only be a catalyst for change in China, ``not a panacea.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Lee Spears in Beijing at lspears2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 14, 2008 04:23 EST