Australian PM says China relations 'challenging'

Rudd played down media reports that Australia's ambassador to China, Geoff Raby, had been called back to Canberra for emergency talks on the deteriorating relationship, but said he would try to make time to meet the top diplomat.

He said Ambassador Raby's trip to Canberra was nothing out of the ordinary and diplomats often returned home for consultations.

The prime minister, a Mandarin-speaking Sinophile who came to office promising closer relations with the communist-ruled Asian giant, said tensions were inevitable between nations that had different values.

"The China-Australia relationship is always full of challenges and can I say it always has been thus and it will be thus for quite a long time to come," he told reporters.

Recent frictions have stemmed from China's detention of an Australian mining executive and Canberra's move to allow a visit by Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer, whom Beijing accuses of being a separatist terrorist.