At a meeting with President Hu Jintao, the Prime Minister said that it would be in China's own interest to make the easing of restrictions on journalists permanent.

Mr Brown arrived in Beijing for the final days of the Games, including the formal handover to London for the 2012 Olympics at the closing ceremony tomorrow.

The question of press freedom was one of a number of human rights issues which he raised during his hour-long meeting with the Chinese president yesterday.

Mr Hu, in turn, used his remarks at their meeting in the Great Hall of the People to refer to the controversial London leg of the Olympic torch relay earlier this year.

"When the Olympic torch ran in London, Mr Prime Minister, you personally welcomed the torch and you also expressed support for the Beijing Olympic Games for which we would like to express our appreciation and gratitude," he told Mr Brown.

The event was in fact dominated by pro-Tibetan protests, while Mr Brown notoriously refused to touch the torch himself when he welcomed the relay in Downing Street.

No 10 aides insisted however that Mr Hu's comments had not been intended as a barbed reference to the torch's reception in London and that the "atmospherics" between the two men had been very good.

Mr Brown, who praised the "spectacular" success of the Games, said that he had made clear that he hoped the greater openness which the Olympics had brought would not end once the Games were over.

"It is in China's interest. It would be a very important gesture to the rest of the world if they were to say that these restrictions could be permanently removed," he said.