by Giles Hewitt

BEIJING, April 9 (AFP) - China brimmed with confidence Wednesday after splitting the European vote in its annual battle to defeat a motion criticising Beijing at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Denmark, supported by the United States, was to put forward a draft resolution to the commission Wednesday condemning human rights abuses in China. A vote will be held next Tuesday.

A similar resolution has been presented to the commission every year since the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989, but each time China has managed to garner just enough support notably from developing countries to avoid formal censure.

China is once again assured of victory, although this year it will be an especially sweet one for Beijing which, for the first time, has managed to drive a wedge between members of the European Union (EU).

The EU bloc had sponsored the last six critical resolutions, but was prevented from doing so this time around by a French-led revolt, backed by Germany, Italy, Spain, and Greece.

A similar split has apparently opened between the United States and Canada, with the latter's foreign minister hinting last week in Beijing that Ottawa might back off from supporting this year's resolution.

The divisions are a major diplomatic coup for China, which in recent years has perfected an effective strategy of threat and commercial bribery to water down Western criticism of its human rights record.

"Obviously China is going to protest the draft resolution as usual, but it must be rubbing its hands with glee at such a public demonstration of the progress it has made since 1989," said one western diplomat here.

With the EU split, Denmark has opted to put its name forward as sponsor of this year's resolution and it is expected to have the backing of at least 11 EU members as well as the United States.

Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen said Tuesday that Denmark would not be swayed by Chinese warnings of retaliation or Beijing's sudden announcement that it would sign the UN convention on economic, social and cultural rights before the end of the year.

"The decision has been taken and the draft resolution, whose chief themes will be breaches of freedom of expression and association and the conditions of political prisoners, will be presented," Petersen said.

The document also expresses concern over "the executions and long prison terms for political prisoners" and calls on China to "improve the situation on these points, to release political detainees and to preserve the religious and ethnic rights in Tibet and in other communities."

China warned Tuesday that all countries supporting the resolution would be damage their relations with the Asian giant.

"Supporting this resolution will not be beneficial to any nation's ties with China," Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said.

"We hope that these European countries can look at overall bilateral relations and not continue with confrontation on the human rights issue," he added.

At the same time, Beijing has been effusive in its praise of countries like France and Italy for refusing to support the motion.

The United States, meanwhile, has publicly deplored the "divisions" within the EU, while offering no direct criticism of its 15 members.

State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns recalled that Washington had "encouraged China to adhere to international conventions and change its human rights practices," but that so far there had been no improvement.