(CNN) -- Actress Sharon Stone said in a statement Saturday that she "could not be more regretful" of her comments this month regarding the earthquake in China, in which she suggested that the quake was an act of "karma."



Sharon Stone made the controversial remarks before she hosted a charity auction at the Cannes Film Festival.



"Yes, I misspoke," said the statement released by Stone's publicist and entitled "In my own words by Sharon Stone."



"I could not be more regretful of that mistake. It was unintentional. I apologize. Those words were never meant to be hurtful to anyone," Stone said. "They were an accident of my distraction and a product of news sensationalism."



Stone said Saturday that she was issuing the statement to set the record straight about the comments she made to a reporter at the Cannes Film Festival.



The statement drew fire from citizens and government officials.



"There have been numerous reports about what I said in Cannes. I would like to set the record straight about what I feel in my heart and end all of the understandings," she said.



"They're not being nice to the Dalai Lama, who is a friend of mine," Stone said on camera at the time, discussing the Chinese. "And then all of this earthquake and all this happened and I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice, that bad things happen to you?"



Qin Gang, spokesman for China's Foreign Ministry, said Stone "should do more to promote understanding and friendship between nations."



French fashion house Christian Dior said it would drop Stone from its advertisements in China after her May 22 remarks.



"We absolutely disagree with her hasty comments, and we are also deeply sorry about them," Dior said in a statement from its Shanghai, China, headquarters.



But Stone said she was "deeply saddened by the pain that this whole situation has caused the victims of the devastating earthquake in China."



As of Friday, the death toll from the May 12 magnitude-7.9 quake stood at 68,858, with another 18,618 missing.
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