China rejects UK cellphone tale

China's Government has rejected a report that a British official lost his cellphone during a trip to China in a suspected Chinese intelligence operation involving a beautiful woman.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said yesterday that the "report is purely fictitious".

Britain's Sunday Times alleged an aide to Prime Minister Gordon Brown reported the phone lost in January after leaving a party at a hotel disco in Shanghai with an attractive Chinese woman.

Brown's office has already denied the report.