BEIJING, April 17 (AFP) - China urged Denmark Thursday to correct its mistakes and stop confrontation on human rights issues after Copenhagen's anti-China motion was defeated at the UN Human Rights Commission.

"There are now some problems in Sino-Danish ties and this is entirely Denmark's fault because it brought up a confrontation on human rights in the international scene," foreign ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said.

"We hope Denmark will correct its mistakes and if in the future there are human rights problems, it should have bilateral discussions on the issue and not resort to an international confrontation," he added.

China blocked debate of the Danish-led resolution criticizing China's human rights record on Tuesday by tabling a "no-action" motion that was passed by 27 members with 17 voting against and nine abstaining.

Since then, it has already retaliated against Denmark by postponing all exchanges of visits and has hit out at the Netherlands by blocking a scheduled trip to Beijing by a Dutch minister.

"Any nation that adopts a confrontational attitude on China's human rights will suffer damage in its bilateral relations or will suffer retardation in the development of its bilateral relations," Shen said.

"We hope western countries, especially those nations that supported the anti-China motion at the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, will adopt a less confrontational attitude and start a dialogue on human rights on the basis of mutual respect," he added.

China maintains that its human rights record is improving year by year as basic living standards rise and poverty levels drop.

It insists that dissidents like Wei Jingsheng or Wang Dan are imprisoned because they are convicted criminals and not because they expressed their own political opinions.