It is 40 years since American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos gave a Black Power salute after finishing first and second in the 200 metres at the Mexico City Olympics but Moynihan does not expect any similar gestures from British athletes angry at China's policies in Tibet and Dafur.

But he will be reminding the 313 members of Team GB that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have banned podium protests.

Moynihan said: "The position on that has been made very clear by the IOC and I will be communicating the law in writing or in person between now and the start of the Games.

"That guidance is unprecedented.

"We have never had guidance to define what propaganda means in this context and where.

"Athletes who have real concerns should be able to speak out freely and will have many opportunities to do so in press conferences in Beijing.

"But the use of the podium for racist or political propaganda is explicitly forbidden and they will have to understand that clearly.

"Any athlete who goes there thinking the IOC will not take a tough line on that would be unwise."

Moynihan, Sports Minister under Margaret Thatcher's Conservative Government from 1987 to 1990, knows from his own experience sport and politics can rarely be separated.

He coxed the Great Britain rowing eight to a silver in the Moscow Games of 1980, an event that was boycotted by many nations because of the Soviet Union's invasion the previous year of Afghanistan.

He said:"'I personally take the view that if you are one of the 313 who are going to the Olympic Games, the moment you leave this country you are utterly, totally focused on winning.

"I had far more politics thrown at me in 1980 than happens today.

"Today we have at Governmental level very warm and strong relations between Britain and China.

"In 1980, as somebody who wanted to go into politics, I was under daily attack both by the press and by politicians of the Conservative party.

"I was hauled into the Foreign Office to get a hard time from Douglas Hurd, who was then a junior minister, and received daily letters from people who were absolutely opposed to me competing in Moscow because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979-80.

"But even then, however strongly I felt, it was wrong to single out the athletes.

"For an athlete to make a political point against the Government's opposition to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan was to me an unacceptable principle and remains so.

"Even then, when I went to Moscow, I was wholly focused on trying to get a gold medal and I believe that with all the athletes I have spoken to, their focus is absolutely on that page.

"So I would be very surprised indeed if they didn't have that focus."