China executed a British man for drug smuggling Tuesday, ignoring international pleas for clemency on the grounds he was mentally unstable and warning London that its outrage threatened relations. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he was ``appalled' by the execution _ China's first of a European citizen in nearly 60 years.

But Beijing dismissed claims by relatives and rights groups that 53-year-old Akmal Shaikh's mental instability was exploited to lure him into smuggling a suitcase of heroin into the country. Beijing's insistence in carrying out the death sentence reflects both the communist government's traditional distrust of foreign interference and its new-found power to resist Western pressure.

``We express our strong dissatisfaction and opposition to the British accusation,' Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters at a regularly scheduled news conference. ``We urge the British side to correct its wrongdoing to avoid causing damages to bilateral relations.' Though rare, China has in the past pardoned prisoners or released them early in response to international pressure, particularly those accused of spying or political or economic crimes.

Copyright Associated Press, 2009