Beijing - A profile of Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has appeared on the popular online social networking site Facebook.

The Foreign Ministry told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Wednesday that it was unaware of the profile and would look into it.

Wen, 65, whose popularity has soared following his rapid reaction to the earthquake catastrophe in the south-west of the country and who has won the nickname Grandad Wen, already has 15,000 friends on his profile.

It was not clear who posted the profile. There are many fake profiles on Facebook, including one for US President George Bush.

Wen's profile has few personal details or preferences, but it does contain lots of pictures of Wen in the quake-hit region and a video about the disaster.

The majority of the English and Chinese postings on the profile are gushing statements of support: "All Chinese support you. You are our pride."

One young woman posted a message on the profile to say: "I don't think this site was set up by officials. It was most probably one of the premier's fans."

There are also a few critical postings about Tibet, the Dalai Lama, the human rights situation in China, the Olympic Games and freedom of the press.

"To express an opinion is no crime: it is a human right," one person wrote.

China censors the internet massively and blocks websites that are critical of the Communist regime. Chinese internet-users can access Facebook, however. (dpa)