The Vietnamese government has rejected accusations by a United Nations envoy that it restricted and disrupted his investigation into religious intolerance.

When the UN official, Abdelfattah Amor, ended a fact-finding visit last week, he said plain-clothes police had stopped him meeting the head of a banned Buddhist church.

He also said his meeting with two monks in a labour camp had been repeatedly interrupted.

But a Vietnamese foreign ministry spokeswoman said he had been free to meet the people he wanted to meet, and said the problems he outlined were due to practical considerations, not policy.

Mr Amor is due to release a full report on his ten-day visit next year.