Beijing has called on Australia to "respect" its legal system, as it probes allegations of bribery by employees at mining firm Rio Tinto.

China’s vice foreign minister Liu Jieyu urged Canberra not to interfere after the arrest of Australian national Stern Hu and three Chinese colleagues at Rio.

They are accused of using bribery to obtain state secrets – souring relations between the two countries.

Rio denies the allegations and no charges have yet been laid.

The facts of the case would constitute a violation of Australian laws if they were to happen in Australia, said Liu Jieyu.

"The Chinese government respects the independent judiciary of the Australian judicial system. I think we would expect that the same from other countries," he added.

"By dealing with this case, we are really establishing or we are really trying to establish a good environment for all companies in China – foreign companies operating in China and local Chinese companies."

Trading partner

Last month, the Australian trade minister, Simon Crean, warned that business relations with China could be damaged if the case of the detained Rio Tinto workers was not handled appropriately.

Australian opposition politicians have complained that the arrest may be in retaliation for the collapse in June of Rio’s proposed deal with Chinese state-owned firm Chinalco.

Rio scrapped a $19.5bn (£11.8bn) investment by Chinalco in favour of a tie-up with fellow Anglo-Australian miner BHP Billiton. Rio Tinto is now finalising a deal with BHP to merge their iron ore operations in Western Australia.

However, Mr Crean did not believe that the two incidents were related

China is Australia’s biggest trade partner, worth $53bn in 2008. Of this, $14bn came from iron ore exports, powered by Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton.

The world’s fastest-growing economy, China consumes more than half the globally-traded iron ore. China needs Australia’s resources and Australia needs Chinese demand.

It has been thanks to the robust Chinese demand for its natural resources that Australia has so far managed to avoid falling into a recession.</p

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