Tintin, the intrepid boy reporter of comic strip fame, was at the centre of an embarrassing diplomatic incident last night after politically correct Chinese translators renamed his adventures in Tibet "Tintin in Chinese Tibet" in deference to Beijing's iron grip on the annexed region.

Known as simply "Tintin in Tibet" since 1957 when it was first published in the west, the translating "error" has caused untold problems for the Belgian publisher Casterman, which has just negotiated a groundbreaking and lucrative deal to bring the adventures of the quiffed boy journalist to China for the first time.

The overly orthodox translation has caused a good deal of awkwardness for Belgium's foreign minister, Louis Michel, a self-styled champion of democracy, who was in Beijing on Tuesday to toast the historic deal only to discover that he had walked into a diplomatic minefield.

"I am not a translator or a publisher and I don't speak Chinese," was all the minister would say at the time, urging the matter to be settled privately between Casterman and their local partners, the China Children Publishing House.

But Casterman signalled yesterday after a hastily convened meeting in Beijing that it would be insisting that the word "Chinese" be dropped from all future editions. The publisher also sought to play down the seriousness of the incident.

"We are interested in the Chinese market but we are not interested in getting involved in politics," Casterman's Willy Fadeur said.

Mr Fadeur added: "We have asked our partners to rectify the album, not for political reasons but simply to defend the authenticity of the original and they have agreed."

Tibet was invaded by the Chinese army in 1950 and accusations of fierce repression in the region persist.

Fanny Rodwell, the widow of Tintin's Belgian creator Hergé, is reported to be a personal friend of the Dalai Lama and she did not attend the launch ceremony in Beijing for that reason.

Chinese censors have already ensured that the most populous country on earth will be deprived of Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (anti-communist) and Tintin in the Congo (too racist and imperialist) although 21 of the original 23 albums will be available officially for the first time.

Pirated albums of Tintin have circulated for the last two decades but they are of such poor quality that Chinese readers have been under the impression that Tintin (Dingding in Chinese) was asiatic rather than hailing from Brussels.