Beijing (CNN) Nobel Peace Prize-winning Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo has been refused permission to travel overseas to receive cancer treatment.

Liu, 61, was granted medical parole and released from jail earlier this month after he was diagnosed with late-stage liver cancer.

A Chinese vice minister of justice met with diplomats from the US, Germany and the EU on Thursday to brief them about Liu's case, and told the diplomats that Liu can't go abroad for treatment because he is too sick to travel, according to a source familiar with the meeting.

Liu had been serving an 11-year prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power" in Jinzhou, near the city of Shenyang in northeastern China.

His case has come under an international spotlight amid allegations from his supporters that he had become gravely ill because his cancer wasn't treated in prison.

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