Take shark fin dishes off the menu, says lawmaker

BEIJING, March 13 (Reuters) China should take all shark fin dishes off the menu for foreign visitors before the 2008 Olympic Games, a lawmaker said today.

Officials in China traditionally honour distinguished guests with huge banquets climaxing with rare or exotic dishes featuring such delicacies as bear's paw, swallow's nest, monkey brains as well as the famous soup made from shark fin.

Xu Hongzhi, deputy to the National People's Congress and president of the prestigious Peking University, said such menu items might upset foreign guests.

''Serving shark fin to foreign guests during the Olympic Games could greatly hurt China's national image and officials should start to remove the dish from the dining table right now,'' he told state Xinhua news agency.

Xu said China should also stay away from dishes using other species of wildlife such as snake during the Games.

''It's not only an environmental issue, but one that has a direct bearing on the image of Chinese people,'' he said.

Figures show imports of shark fin rocketing in China in recent years, though Chinese NBA player Yao Ming and gymnastics great Li Ning took part in a campaign last year to convince the Chinese to stop eating it.

REUTERS PDS VC1700