SYDNEY, March 16: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put pressure on China over its military build-up and praised Indian democracy on Thursday ahead of controversial security talks with Japan and Australia.

Ms Rice was speaking at a news conference here after meeting Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and ahead of a new trilateral security dialogue with Japan on Saturday, at which China’s growing power is top of the agenda.

“We’ve said we have concerns about the Chinese military build-up. We’ve told the Chinese that they need to be transparent,” she said.

“I heard there’s going to be a 14 per cent increase in the Chinese defence budget — that’s a lot — and China should undertake to be transparent about what that means.”

In an immediate response from Beijing, China insisted its military policies were clear.

“China’s defence policy is totally transparent, it’s a defensive policy. We hope the other countries will consider this issue objectively,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said.

China’s parliament on Tuesday approved a 14.7-per cent increase in military spending to $35 billion this year, following similar double-digit rises in recent years.

China has repeatedly pointed out its military spending remains less than 10 Per cent of the US armed forces’ budget.

Ms Rice’s remarks came amid a renewed rise in tensions between China and Taiwan after Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian moved to suspend an advisory council set up to look at eventual reunification with the mainland.

Ms Rice, in an apparent effort to counter suggestions that US President George W. Bush has instead begun taking a more hawkish line on China, said his policy had not changed.

“To the degree we have concerns, we are going to raise them. We’re going to raise them about human rights and religious freedoms, but I think this policy has been consistent from the day the president came to Washington,” she said. The comments by had been interpreted by some analysts as foreshadowing a new policy of containment.—AFP