BEIJING -- China has clamped down further on issuing business visas during the Olympic period, government officials said Thursday, in the latest expansion of already-tight entry restrictions for the games.

 “Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce has stopped issuing invitation letters needed for visas for business people until late September.” Some foreign press reported on last Thursday. But an official with the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Commerce denied that July 28. “We have not stopped issuing invitation letters needed for visas for business people. In fact, from July on, around 150 case were handled every day, which increased 52% compared with the same period of last year.”

To ensure a trouble-free games and project an image of a modern China, China has tightened its visa rules to keep out foreign activists and foreigners not properly employed in Beijing, but businessmen have also been caught in the net.

In Shanghai, the site of some of the Olympic football competition, a notice on the Web site of the Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations and Trade Commission, said it wont support visas for routine business visits, market research or training until mid-September. Important business visits will be considered, it said, but the length of time will be shortened.

Andrew Work, executive director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, Juergen Weckherlin, a German businessman in Hong Kong, Kate Pollitt, executive director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, prefered to have no restrictions. At the time both the American and European chambers of commerce in Hong Kong sent urgent letters to the Chinese government, raising concerns over the impact on businesses.

Travel agents in Hong Kong, a major gateway into China, reported in April that the government visa office had declared multiple-entry business visas would not be available from mid-April until mid-October. In the past, such visas were easily obtainable, and businessmen would take regular trips to the mainland to check up on offices or factories.

Richard Choi, the manager of the Canada China Business Council in Shanghai, said he did not think it would affect businesses too much. Such security was natural for any country hosting the Olympic Games, he said.