by Jacques Boyer

GENEVA, March 9 (AFP) - Rights in China will be the focus of six weeks of discussions and hard bargaining between delegates from 53 countries and 200 organizations gathering Monday for the annual session of the UN Human Rights Commission.

After months of haggling over rights issues between Beijing, Washington and European capitals, the commission, which is bringing together 2,000 delegates for its 53rd session, is set to step in as arbiter.

Underlining the emphasis on China, thousands of Tibetans and sympathisers from across Europe were planning to hail the annual meeting with a colourful demonstration Sunday and Monday outside the Palais des Nations to commemorate the 38th anniversary of the country's abortive uprising.

A key unknown of the session remains whether or not the European Union and the United States will submit a resolution calling on the commission to condemn major human rights violations by Beijing.

The resolution has been submitted annually for the last seven years, since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre, but each time China has been able to garner enough support to defeat the motion. Diplomats say the resolution has just as little chance of success this year.

A number of factors suggest that compromise is more likely than confrontation this year.

Some western countries see the yearly ritual as sterile as well as damaging to their interests in the lucrative Chinese market. And China itself would like to put an end to the annual public humiliation.

"The Chinese denounce outside pressure, but at the same time they are aware that there is a problem and that they should conform to certain international norms, like all rapidly developing countries," one diplomat said.

Beijing has recently softened its stance on a number of US demands.

For the first time, it has said it plans to adhere to the UN's two human rights conventions. It has said that ultimately it would be willing to allow the Red Cross access to its prisons.

Parliament is preparing to replace "counter-revolutionary" crimes with the crime of threatening state security. Beijing has invited the UN's high commissioner for human rights as well as the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit. It has freed a number of dissidents over the past few months.

The ultimate tone of discussions in Geneva over the next six weeks will depend on whether or not these tentative steps are backed up and the extent to which western governments trust the new Chinese moves.

"There are signs, but the consequences are unclear," one diplomat said.

The United States says it has not yet made a decision on whether or not the resolution will be put forward.

"If there were not further progress, we expect that we would be going forward in Geneva, but there is still time," US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said after her visit to Beijing last month.

Vice President Al Gore is also due to visit China before the end of March.

As for the Europeans, foreign ministers are divided, just as they were last year. France said in Brussels last month that it was opposed to a new confrontation with China.

Human rights organisations say such indecision is allowing Beijing to get away with "diplomatic games" that actually contribute to divisions in the western camp.

But Amnesty International delegate Nicholas Howen acknowledges that the evolution of the rights issue in China is complex.

"There are forces within China who want to see change," he said, but for him the best way to support them would be to maintain international pressure.