Beijing - Chinese President Hu Jintao met his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy, Friday amid a flurry of diplomatic activity before they and about 80 other heads of state attended the opening of the 2008 Olympics.

Before he left for China, Sarkozy pledged not to meet the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to France next week.

State media did not say if Hu and Sarkozy discussed Tibet and gave no other details of the talks between the two presidents.

Sarkozy had previously indicated that he would consider boycotting the opening of the Beijing Olympics if there was no progress in talks on the future of Tibet between Chinese officials and envoys of the Dalai Lama.

But Sarkozy later agreed to attend the ceremony, and the Dalai Lama had not requested a meeting with him in France, a French government statement said Wednesday.

According to Le Figaro newspaper, however, Sarkozy's wife Carla Bruni would attend a religious ceremony led by the Dalai Lama for the opening of a Buddhist temple in Roqueredonde in southern France.

Ties between France and China became strained in April after demonstrations marred the French leg of the Olympic torch relay, mostly involving protests by supporters of Tibetan independence. dpa