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China faces a difficult year as it works to maintain economic growth and spur development, but it would not be bullied into boosting the value of its currency, Premier Wen Jiabao said today.

In a wide-ranging press conference at the end of China’s annual session of parliament, Mr Wen said Beijing was not ready to withdraw stimulus measures put in place in late 2008 to pull the world’s third-largest economy out of the crisis, and denied criticism that China is keeping its currency undervalued in order to boost exports.

He also said that he would not allow the US to push China on the issues of China and Tibet, and claimed he was snubbed at last year’s Copenhagen climate change summit.

Keeping the yuan stable was “an important contribution” to global recovery from the economic downturn, Mr Wen told hundreds of reporters gathered at the Great Hall of the People for his only formal press conference of the year.

“This year is going to be the most complicated year for the economy,” he said.

“We will maintain the continuity and stability of our macroeconomic policies,” he said, adding that as circumstances change, Beijing would make every effort to make its policies “more flexible”.

During the two hour press conference, Premier Wen also repeated China’s stance that a recent dip in relations with the United States was entirely the fault of Washington for allowing the Dalai Lama to visit the U.S. and approving the sale of arms to Taiwan.

“The responsibility does not lie with the Chinese side, but the United States,” Mr Wen said. “We hope the U.S. will face the issue squarely … so as to restore and improve China-US relations.”

Speaking just after the country’s annual legislative session ended with the approval of a budget that extends job-creation and welfare programs to deal with a rapidly expanding rich-poor gap, Mr Wen said

China had to be wary of a “double dip” recession this year as it sought to balance growth, economic structural adjustments and inflation expectations.

China “must have firm confidence” in dealing with any economic problems, he said. “The only way out and hope when facing difficulties lie in our own efforts,” he said during the televised news conference

China, the world’s third-largest economy, escaped the worst of the global financial crisis by ordering $1.4 trillion in bank lending and government stimulus.