CANBERRA -- Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said here Wednesday a boycott of the Beijing Olympics was not a sensible thing to do.

"I don't believe a boycott of the Olympics is a sensible or the right thing to do," Smith told ABC Radio.

The Olympics should be used to promote China rather than attack it, he said.

"I think we should use the Olympics as part of China's engagement with the international community."

"The Olympics is a chance to put the spotlight on China but also to enhance China's engagement with the international community," he said.

"In the past, boycotts of the Olympics in my view have not been successful, whether Australia is engaged in that as it did with the Moscow Olympics or when other nation states have engaged in it, " the minister said.