Olympic Games chief Jacques Rogge had only last week said how pleased he was that no government had supported a boycott, and on Tuesday, the White House confirmed that President George W Bush still planned to attend the opening of the Beijing Games.
However, on a recent visit to the Pyrenees, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "All options are open and I appeal to the Chinese leaders' sense of responsibility. I want a dialogue to start and I will step up my response according to the response given by the Chinese authorities."
France's state television network has also announced it might boycott coverage of the Olympic Games if Beijing insisted on censoring protests that were taking place.
