BEIJING -- President Bush continued to urge Chinese leaders yesterday to allow their citizens more political and religious freedoms as he met with Chinese President Hu Jintao and other top Chinese officials on the opening weekend of the Summer Olympic Games.

Since the beginning of his six-day Asian tour, Mr. Bush has repeatedly brought up human rights issues, to the irritation of his hosts in Beijing, while at the same time praising Chinese reforms that have opened up this economy of 1.3 billion people to record development.

Yesterday, Mr. Bush attended church services at the Beijing Kuanjie Protestant Christian Church with much of his family, a provocative act in a country where Christians are limited by law to worshiping at state-approved churches. The Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities detained a worshipper, Hua Huqui, on his way to the service attended by Mr. Bush.

After the service, Mr. Bush alluded to Chinese religious restrictions, saying, "You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion."

Mr. Bush pressed the matter hours later with Mr. Hu, telling him the church service gave him "a spirit-filled, good feeling." He added, "As you know, I feel very strongly about religion, and I am so appreciative of the chance to go to church here in your society."

Later, in a private meeting, Mr. Bush again urged Mr. Hu to improve China's human rights record, saying greater freedoms would unleash "a certain creativity in your society," according to Dennis Wilder, National Security Council senior director for East Asian affairs in a press briefing.

Watchdog groups report the Chinese government has intensified its crackdown on dissidents and maintained its restrictions on news media in the run-up to the Summer Games, which started on Friday.

"[Mr. Bush] told President Hu that this is an important aspect of the U.S.-China dialogue, and that the Chinese can expect that any future American president will also make it an important aspect of our dialogue," Mr. Wilder said.

Mr. Wilder said Mr. Hu hinted that the Chinese government planned to widen religious freedoms.

"I think President Hu was saying, 'You've gone to church today and you've seen Christians worshiping openly in our society,' " Mr. Wilder said. "I took it to mean that, I think in the future there will be more room for Christians and other religious groups in this society."

After launching the criticisms last week in South Korea and Thailand, Mr. Bush had stayed largely quiet since the Olympic Games began Friday night.

He has dedicated most of his time to catching sporting events and posing for photos with U.S. athletes, including catching U.S. swimmer's Michael Phelps' gold medal-winning race in the 400-meter individual medley yesterday morning. Mr. Bush returns to Washington today.