Prime Minister Stephen Harper raised the issue of a Canadian citizen imprisoned in China with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday.

The Prime Minister's Office released a statement saying the two leaders held a 45-minute meeting to discuss a number of issues, including "the issue of consular access for (Huseyin) Celil."

The statement had no other information about the meeting. But Celil's wife said Foreign Affairs told her on Tuesday that her husband's family -- who lives in China -- was allowed to visit him in prison recently. Celil was told the family members said he had been tortured.

"Two or three times he was unconscious. He was beaten," Kamila Celil told CTV.ca in a telephone interview from her home in Burlington, Ont., on Wednesday.

"It's very important for the Canadian people because he's a Canadian citizen ... (The) government should stop it."

In April 2007, a Chinese court found Huseyin Celil guilty for the crimes of "separating China and ... organizing, leading and participating in terrorist groups, organizations."

He was given a life sentence and in July 2007 a Chinese court rejected his appeal. Celil's family has said he was jailed because he is a human rights activist.

Kamila Celil said Canadian diplomats have still not been granted access to Celil. China has long said that because Celil was born in China they will not recognize his Canadian citizenship.

Earlier this spring, his family sent a letter to the prime minister calling on him to "renew and fortify Canada's efforts to ensure Mr. Celil's human rights are protected."

Celil, who belongs to the Uighur Muslim minority of far western China, holds Canadian citizenship. The Chinese-born man came to Canada via Uzbekistan and Turkey in 1999 as refugee.

In late March 2006, Celil visited Uzbekistan and was arrested and sent to China.

Chinese authorities claim that militants among the Uighurs -- Turkic-speaking Muslims -- are backing a violent Islamic separatist movement in an attempt to set up an independent state of "East Turkistan.''

Hu and Harper met at an outreach session of the G8 summit in Japan, where Canada and other members of the world's eight most influential economies met this week. China is not part of the G8, but international leaders have said it, along with other developing countries such as India, needs to be integrated into solutions dealing with international problems.

In addition to the Celil case, the statement from Harper's office said the two leaders also discussed:

Climate change, where "Harper encouraged China to accept a global goal of 50 per cent reductions by 2050 in greenhouse emissions"

• Canada-China economic cooperation
• China's earthquake in Sichuan province
• The Beijing Olympics

With a report from CTV's Graham Richardson from Toyako, Japan