In a letter to senior lawmakers and the president of the assembly, China had warned that giving the Sakharov Prize to the civil rights campaigner could damage ties with Europe.

Beijing hit out when the award was announced, calling the move "gross interference" in its domestic affairs, while Hu's wife and other dissidents saw it as a vindication of the ailing activist's work.

To widespread applause, President Hans-Gert Poettering told the chamber that "by awarding the Sakharov Prize to Hu Jia, the European Parliament is sending out a clear signal of support to all those who defend human rights in China."

He said Hu had "spoken out against oppression in Tibet," and described him as "one of the real defenders of human rights in the People's Republic of China".

But China's foreign ministry expressed "strong dissatisfaction at the decision by the European Parliament to give the award to a jailed criminal in China, in disregard of our repeated representations.

"This is gross interference in China's domestic affairs," said ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. "I don't believe that anyone gets anywhere by interfering in the affairs of others."

Hu's wife, who says he is suffering in prison from liver cirrhosis and anaemia, welcomed the award as did other dissidents.

"I think Hu Jia would be very happy because his work has now received everyone's validation," Zeng Jinyan, Hu's wife, told AFP.

Qi Zhiyong, a longtime dissident who lost a leg during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, said: "It will help to promote the protection of human rights in China. This is a good thing for China's people."

In Strasbourg, the head of the EU parliament's liberal group, Graham Watson, told AFP that Chinese officials had gone to great lengths to try to influence the result.

"By letter, by email, and they've even tried by telephone," he said.

Poettering was one to receive a letter from China's ambassador.

"This prize is awarded in Strasbourg, not in Beijing," Poettering said on the sidelines of the session.

The letter, from Ambassador Song Zhe, warned: "If the European Parliament should award this prize to Hu Jia, that would inevitably hurt the Chinese peoples once again and bring serious damage to China-EU relations."

The 35-year-old is known for his campaign for civil rights, the environment and AIDS victims but is serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for subversion.

He was arrested last year after giving testimony on human rights in China to the European Parliament's human rights sub-committee by video-conference.

China angrily called Hu a "criminal" when he was considered a top candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month.

EU leaders are to hold a summit in Beijing on Friday with Chinese and other Asian leaders, although China said the summit would not be affected by the award.

Rights in China are a constant theme at summits but this time Europe is trying to get China to back international efforts to end the financial crisis.

"We hope that the recognition the European Parliament has given Hu Jia... will demonstrate to China's leaders the enormous esteem the international community holds for his important work as a human rights defender and that China will release him immediately," said US State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier called on Beijing to commute Hu's sentence -- almost 12 months after an official visit by the Dalai Lama to Berlin halted rights dialogue between the two powers.

"I beseech the Chinese government to take this opportunity to consider the possibility of suspending (Hu's) sentence," Steinmeier said.

New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch called on Beijing to immediately exonerate or grant medical parole to Hu.

The Sakharov Prize, named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov, is in its 20th year. Previous winners will be invited to the presentation of the 50,000-euro (64,000-dollar) award on December 17.

Others short-listed for the prize were Belarus opposition leader Alexandr Kozulin and Congolese abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu.

Past winners include former South African leader Nelson Mandela, detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.

earlier related report
US presses China to free EU prize-winning dissident
Washington said Thursday it hopes Beijing will move to free Chinese dissident Hu Jia from prison, after the European Parliament awarded him a human rights prize on the eve of an EU-Asia summit.

"We are deeply concerned about the imprisonment of human rights activist Hu Jia and have pressed the Chinese authorities for his immediate release on many occasions and at the highest level," said State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid.

"We hope that the recognition the European Parliament has given Hu Jia by awarding him the prestigious Sakharov Prize will demonstrate to China's leaders the enormous esteem the international community holds for his important work as a human rights defender and that China will release him immediately."

The European Parliament named Hu, 35, its Sakharov laureate for this year despite pressure from China, which denounced it as "gross interference" in its domestic affairs a day before a two-day Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) summit in Beijing.

Duguid said: "We will continue to work with others in the international community to encourage China to bring its human rights practices in compliance with international human rights standards."

"No one should be imprisoned for expressing his or her views or for working within China's legal system to improve the life of his or her fellow citizens," the spokesman added.

"We look forward to the day when China will recognize the contribution of Chinese human rights activists who work on some of the most difficult problems facing Chinese society."

Separately, the State Department urged China to swiftly release Beijing house church leader Zhang "Bike" Mingxuan after he was reportedly detained in southwest China and his two sons were beaten in Beijing.

"We call upon the government of China immediately to release pastor Zhang and permit his family members to return home, to condemn the violent acts committed against his sons, and to bring to justice those individuals responsible for such acts," it said.

In a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, congressmen Frank Wolf and Christopher Smith said Zhang was detained in Kunming city, southwest China, on October 16, followed three days later in Beijing by his wife.

They also alleged that his son Zhang Jian was "severely beaten" unconscious when police raided the family's home in Beijing, with injuries so serious that he may lose sight in his right eye. A younger son was also beaten, they added.

"Should the administration fail to act on this case, it will serve as a symbol of the broken promises President Bush made to promote freedom and democracy throughout the world," the congressmen said in their letter dated Wednesday.

The State Department said: "We are concerned about a pattern of intimidation of religious freedom and rule of law advocates and their family members.

"We urge China to honor those international human rights instruments to which it is a signatory that protect the rule of law, freedom of expression, and freedom of religion."

Nicknamed Pastor Bike for having travelled China by bicycle to distribute Bibles and preach the Christian gospel, Zhang -- one of best known leaders of China's unofficial house churches -- and his wife were previously detained before the Beijing Olympics.

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