The Chinese authorities have ordered the closure of an independent association of intellectuals in Beijing which aimed to lobby the government to promote political and other reforms.

The leader of the group, Peng Ming, said the authorities had declared it illegal, and that police had confiscated documents and computers.

The group, the China Development Union, was formed in August and claimed to have around four thousand members.

Its leaders had been organising regular discussions in Beijing about political reform and other sensitive issues.The BBC correspondent in Beijing says members of the group are not prominent dissidents, but moderate intellectuals who have been encouraged by a recent warming of the political atmosphere in Beijing to express their opinions more openly. .