The United Nations Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance, Abdellfattah Amor, is leaving Vietnam today after a ten-day trip focusing on alleged abuses of religious freedoms.

Mr Amor has made no comment on his findings, but human rights organisations have accused the government of obstructing his mission.

The Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said Mr Amor had only been permitted to see members of the state-sponsored Buddhist Church but refused access to leading religious dissidents.

The government has denied any interference.

The BBC religious affairs correspondent says Vietnam's Communist leadership has been eager to improve its image on religious freedom, while maintaining state control over the church.

On Tuesday, the government released a prominent religious leader Thich Nhat Ban of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam as part of an amnesty of more than two-thousand-six-hundred prisoners.