WASHINGTON, August 5, 2008 (AFP) - Ahead of his Beijing Olympics trip, US President George W. Bush said he hoped China would strike a fine balance between maintaining security and respecting the spirit of the global event.

He told the Washington Post in an interview published Tuesday that Beijing was overly sensitive over the terrorism threat in the run up to the games opening on Friday.

'They're hypersensitive to a potential terrorist attack,' Bush said in the interview aboard Air Force One taking him to the Asia trip that also covered South Korea and Thailand.

'And my hope is, of course, that as they have their security in place, that they're mindful of the spirit of the Games, and that if there is a provocation, they handle it in a responsible way without violence,' Bush said.

Human rights groups charge that a pre-Olympics security drive by Chinese authorities was being used as a crackdown on dissent.

Beijing declared Tuesday it could guarantee a safe Olympics, even as it announced that Islamic militants were trying to wage a holy war aimed at destroying the games, seen as a coming-of-age party for China after three decades of dramatic economic reforms.

The warning came as a suspected terrorist attack left 16 policemen dead in Kashgar, a city in China's northwest Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia.

Bush also said in the interview that it was 'really hard to tell' whether human rights in China had improved during his administration despite his candid approach in dealing with the Chinese leaders on the sensitive issue.

'I mean, this is a closed society in many ways,' he said. 'The Internet provides interesting opportunities for people to express themselves. Sometimes it's open, sometimes the filters are there.

'I've talked to the evangelicals who go there who feel like the underground church movement has gotten a few steps forward, a step-and-a-half back. It's really hard to tell,' Bush said.

The US leader said he spoke candidly with Chinese President Hu Jintao about human rights, particularly religious freedom, and that he had shared his religious beliefs with Hu and Hu's predecessor, Jiang Zemin, urging them to lift restrictions on underground churches.

Bush, who came to office in 2001 with aides depicting China as a 'strategic competitor' and surrounded by hawks who looked suspiciously upon Beijing, emphasized that it was 'important to engage the Chinese.'

His planned meeting with Hu at the Olympics this month will be his 15th meeting with a Chinese president and his visit to China the fourth of his presidency.

No other US president has visited China more than once.