Merkel touts Sino-German hi-tech despite train hitch

SHANGHAI, May 23 (Reuters) German Chancellor Angela Merkel today toured the Shanghai control room of a high-speed train that showcases German magnetic levitation technology, touting cooperation with China but voicing concern about patent piracy.

Merkel's two-day visit to China was due to conclude with a ride to the airport on Shanghai's ''Maglev'' train after talks with the commercial hub's mayor, an address to business leaders and a meeting with a former dissident Catholic bishop.

The train ride was scheduled despite the failure of German and Chinese negotiators to agree on a deal to extend the line from Shanghai 180 km southwest to the city of Hangzhou, officials travelling with Merkel said.

Talks had run on into the early hours of yesterday morning, the officials said, adding that they were still hopeful of an accord by the end of the year.

Senior Chinese foreign ministry officials even came to the German delegation's hotel in Beijing to try to clinch a deal before Merkel's meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao, according to German sources.

''They wanted to put us under time pressure so we would agree to sign for the cameras,'' one German official said.

China is seeking subsidies from Germany for the project and is insisting on a greater transfer of technology, but Germany turned down the demands, partly because of German companies' fears that their patented technology would be copied.

Merkel brought up piracy in talks with leaders yesterday.

As China develops, she told reporters after meeting Wen, ''China will also pay more attention to intellectual property rights''.

Merkel's visit comes after the German government sealed a coalition pact late last year to intensify dialogue with Beijing on democracy and human rights.

She raised the divisive issues of Iran and human rights at meetings in Beijing today, and on Tuesday she visited a church and met a bishop who spent about 27 years in jails and re-education camps.

China has clashed with the Vatican in recent weeks over its unilateral appointment of bishops. Beijing refuses to allow Catholics to recognise the authority of the Pope and insists that they belong to the state-backed Catholic Patriotic Association.

Merkel spoke in German for about 30 minutes with 91-year-old Bishop Aloysius Jin, who studied in Germany and Austria in his youth.

Jin was ordained over 20 years ago as bishop of the Shanghai diocese but, like other bishops at the time, the Vatican refused to recognise him. Later it did, and now Jin has contacts with the underground Catholic church, which is loyal to the Pope.

''I am a Protestant,'' Merkel told the bishop. Jin, smiling, replied: ''I know''.

After showing her round St Ignatius Cathedral, he took her by the hand and said: ''I will always pray for you''.

There are about 150,000 Catholics in Shanghai and more than 100 churches.

REUTERS CH VA VV1006