BERLIN - China's Huawei on Tuesday criticised the United States for warning Berlin that it could scale back intelligence cooperation with Germany if it allows Huawei to participate in construction of a next-generation mobile network.

U.S. Ambassador Richard Grenell last week sent a letter to Germany's Economy Minister Altmaier warning of security concerns linked to Huawei's role in building critical infrastructure. 

In an interview with business daily Handelsblatt, Huawei's chief for West Europe, Vincent Pang, said the U.S. warning went too far. "In my opinion, a country should not use its political power to harm a commercial business," the paper quoted him as saying.

(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Andrea Shalal) ((Tassilo.Hummel@thomsonreuters.com; + 49 30 2888 51 26; Reuters Messaging: tassilo.hummel.thomsonreuters@reuters.net))