Beijing, March 3 (Reuters): After Chinese legislators pass a symbolic amendment at a parliament session starting this week, the constitution will the first time protect human rights, but the step is unlikely to open the floodgates to free speech.

Enshrining human rights will invite some internal debate and could fling wider the door to more reforms, but the step is unlikely to have an impact on China's record of abuses. The constitution already guarantees freedom of religion, speech and assembly but these rights are exercised within limits.

“China's human rights concept is still very vague,” said Liu Xiaobo, a literary critic and dissident jailed after the 1989 pro-democracy protests centred on Beijing's Tiananmen Square:

“The most basic problem is that the state's respect and protection for human rights clashes with the system of rule with one party at the core in the constitution,” he said.

Still, analysts say the amendment reflects a recognition by the government of President Hu Jintao that China must somehow address human rights concerns. “It's an important signal that China has embraced, or has been lured into embracing, the human rights concept and language,” Nicolas Becquelin, of the New York-based watchdog Human Rights in China, said in Hong Kong today. “It's a big legitimacy boost for all the people who have been working on ensuring better rights protection.”