US joins China rights row

US: Tibetan monks are amongst those targeted

The United States has attacked China for its "poor" record on human rights, accusing it of stepping up crackdowns on religion and political dissent.

In its annual report on global human rights, the State Department said it would sponsor a resolution condemning what it called Beijing's worsening performance at a UN meeting next month.

The criticism comes after UN human rights commissioner Mary Robinson condemned China's practice of "re-education through labour" in its notorious prison camps.

The US report... had nothing to say about America's own human rights situation

Chinese report

China has denounced the State Department's findings and threatened to respond by listing what it described as US human rights abuses.

The official Xinhua news agency said Beijing would give a blow by blow account of allegations, including escalating violence and widespread gender and racial discrimination in the US.

Elsewhere in the US report, Iraq and North Korea ranked as among the worst human rights violators. Israel and the Palestinians were also rebuked.

China's poor human rights record worsened during the year

US State Department

The State Department report draws annual expressions of outrage from Beijing, and this year's was no different.

"Respect for religious freedom deteriorated markedly," it said of the Chinese authorities' performance.

"The government conducted crackdowns against underground Christian groups and Tibetan Buddhists and destroyed many houses of worship."

The report detailed widespread use of torture and condemned the crackdown on the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, many of whose followers are under arrest.

Forced labour

Robinson: Attacked jail policy

Mrs Robinson had used a two-day seminar in the Chinese capital earlier on Monday to issue her condemnation.

She called on the Chinese Government to abolish its prison camp system, which she said was against the international principles of human rights.

It allows the police to lock up petty offenders - mainly thieves, drug abusers and prostitutes - to up to three years forced labour without trial.

However, BBC Beijing correspondent Rupert Wingfield-Hayes says the system is widely used to lock up those who criticise the regime or try to organise political dissent.

Labour re-education

Up to 3 years' forced labour without trial

Introduced in 1950

260,000 currently estimated in system

3.5 million detainees in total

The New York-based group Human Rights in China says 260,000 people are in labour camps, 60% of them for non-specific offences classed as "disturbing public order".

Five thousand members of the Falun Gong are among those detained, Falun Gong spokespeople say.

In all, HRC says more than 3,500,000 people have been through the system since it was introduced in 1950.

The Chinese Government has promised to reform the labour re-education camps as part of the process to ratify two important UN human rights covenants into Chinese law.