Frankfurt  - The chief organizer of the Frankfurt Book Fair condemned censorship in China Tuesday, just hours before the biggest annual meeting of world book publishers was to open in Germany.

Human rights groups had previously accused the organizers of pandering to China, which is this year's guest of honour, a status that allows it to stage a cultural exhibition at the fairgrounds and win special attention from the German arts media.

"We strongly condemn the human rights breaches and the restrictions on freedom of opinion and the press in the People's Republic of China," said chief organizer Juergen Boos.

But he insisted China had been an excellent choice as this year's focus nation, saying, "You can marvel at China, fear it or criticize it, but you can't ignore it." He said dialogue with China was likely to bring change, but a book fair was "not the United Nations."

"The subject here is literature. We can describe conflicts, but we can't solve them here," he said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was set to inaugurate the event Tuesday evening with Chinese Vice-President Xi Jinping in attendance. The five-day fair opens for business on Wednesday.

Boos had been criticized over a symposium on Chinese literature in Frankfurt last month. Beijing demanded two dissidents not be invited to the pre-fair event. When they showed up anyway, Beijing officials briefly walked out.(dpa)