The Chinese authorities have banned a group set up by dissidents to monitor corruption in China.

The Chinese authorities' decision to ban the private organisation known as Corruption Watch marks their latest attempt to combat the upsurge of organised dissident activity in China of recent months.

The leader of Corruption Watch, An Jun, said he's been told by officials in the city of Xinyang in Central China that his application to register the group would not be approved.

The dissident told the French news agency AFP that the reason given was that the Communist Party already had an anti-corruption monitoring office and that it would be useless to form a separate one.

Corruption Watch claims to have some 80 members in 10 provinces.

Earlier this month it issued a statement saying that corruption was hindering economic development and threatening social stability.

Government worries

Chinese officials themselves have given similar warnings about the extent of corruption, but it's clear the authorities are worried that anti-government activists might use the issue to push for broader political goals.

The government has also recently banned a group called The China Democracy Party, which this year had been attempting to become the first officially recognised opposition party under communist rule.

Earlier this week the government declared illegal a group of pro-reform intellectuals who claim to have a membership of some 4,000 people around the country.

But the crackdown on organised dissent has so far been less harsh than a similar drive four years ago when several prominent dissidents were sent to labour camps.