Bush meeting dissidents: 'Hu didn't like it but I did it.'

He told me during a one-on-one interview in the Map Room of the White House: "Look, I'm the only president to have ever stood up in public with the Dalai Lama …"

I asked him: "… you didn't think the Chinese leaders would be offended?"

Bush responded: "I told President Hu Jintao I was going to do that. He didn't like it, but I did it."

The day before I met him at the White House last Wednesday, President Bush had held an announced meeting with five well-known Chinese dissidents at his White House residence.

And when he visits Bangkok this week, he is also scheduled to meet a group of anti-government Burmese activists at the US Embassy.

The Chinese activists who met Bush are all well-known dissidents residing outside China - prison critic Harry Wu, democracy activist Wei Jinsheng, Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, Bob Fu of the China Aid Association and writer Sasha Gong.

The Chinese government immediately issued a strong statement effectively criticising the American president for interfering in China's internal affairs.

Will Bush convey the dissidents' concerns to Chinese leaders when he meets them in Beijing later this week?

Bush told me: "Of course, I will. I do it every time I meet [them]. Oh, absolutely. I mean, their concern is religious freedom and political freedom. And I discuss religious freedom and political freedom with the Chinese leaders every time."

Asked whether he didn't realise the Chinese leadership would be upset about his meeting with the government's critics, Bush said: "No, I don't think so, because they know it's done out of respect. It's done out of, you know, in a way that I hope is - in a way that they will listen. That's my whole point. If you treat a people with respect and when it comes time to discuss your differences, people will be more willing to listen."

Bush said while in Thailand on Wednesday and Thursday, he and First Lady Laura Bush will meet a group of Burmese dissidents.

According to the official schedule, President Bush will participate in a "lunch with Burmese activists" at 12.25pm on Thursday immediately after he gets a briefing on Cyclone Nargis disaster relief efforts in Burma.

The US president said he was sure that Laura Bush, who has tentatively planned to visit a Karen refugee camp on the Thai-Burmese border in Tak province, will speak out for democracy for the Burmese people, specifically for the release of democracy fighter Aung San Suu Kyi.

"Absolutely, and as should the world," Bush responded when I asked him whether the First Lady will make that call during the visit here.

"Here is a very heroic woman that was elected overwhelmingly by her people and has now been under house arrest by a group of military guys that just simply won't allow the will of the people to - to flourish. And so, we're concerned about that..."

He added: "And I will be speaking to the activists to let them know that the United States of America hears their voices…."