ARIEL DAVID, ROME

Fiat said yesterday that it will keep running an advert featuring actor Richard Gere and a reference to Tibet that has angered some in China and prompted the Italian carmaker to issue an apology.

Gere, a Buddhist who has been active in the movement to free Tibet, appears in the TV ad for Fiat's new Lancia Delta, using the car to whiz from Hollywood to the snows of the Himalayas, where he plays with a group of young Buddhist monks.

Fiat said in a statement on Friday that casting Gere for the ad had not been a "political choice" and was not driven by the desire to "interfere with the internal political system of any country".

The company apologised to China's government and its people for any offence arising from "misinterpretations of its well-established position of neutrality". However, a Fiat spokesman said the company would continue to run the ad in Italy and would introduce it in other European countries as the Lancia Delta goes on sale across the continent.

The spokesman, who could not be identified under company policy, said the ad was not being aired in China, where the car is not on sale.

The video is easily accessible on YouTube and it has generated angry comments on the internet and in some of the more sensational corners of the entirely state-controlled Chinese media.

Gere has been vilified in China for criticising Beijing's human rights records and policies toward Tibet.-AP