WASHINGTON - THE US State Department said on Friday that China's repression of religious groups intensified during the last year, citing as evidence Beijing's crackdown on Tibetan Buddhists and its harassment of Christians and members of the falungong spiritual group.

The department's annual International Religious Freedom report also condemned Myanmar's military-run government for restricting spiritual activities and abusing its citizens' rights.

In North Korea, the report said, 'genuine religious freedom does not exist.'

Both China and Myanmar have been classified among 'Countries of Particular Concern' since the first religious freedom report came out in 1999. North Korea was added to that category in 2001.

The State Department said that after a violent Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule last March, authorities locked down monasteries, intensified 'patriotic education' campaigns and detained an unknown number of monks and nuns or expelled them from monasteries.'

The government also was said to have increased its criticism of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, after the protests.

President George W. Bush's ambassador for international religious freedom, Mr John Hanford, told reporters that the Tibetan issue has been a prominent part of a resumed US Chinese human rights dialogue.

The United States, he said, objects to harsh treatment of Buddhists loyal to the Dalai Lama and urged China's government to stop appointing and training lamas, Buddhist holy men.

'The Communist Party of China forbids its members and leaders from having any religious belief, and so there's an irony in the fact that the Communist government and party takes upon itself the prerogative of choosing religious leaders, such as lamas,' Mr Hanford said.

There was 'little evidence,' the report said, that China's 2005 regulations on religious affairs had improved the country's spiritual situation.

Applications by unregistered Protestant churches for registration were reported to have been rejected without cause, the State Department said, and 'underground' Roman Catholic bishops faced repression because of loyalty to the Vatican, 'which the government accused of interfering in China's internal affairs.'

Members of the Falungong, which China considers a cult, faced arrest, detention and imprisonment, and the State Department noted reports of death from torture.

The report praised China for allowing foreign and domestic religious groups to boost cooperation on religious education and charitable work.

In Myanmar, 'the government continued to infiltrate and monitor activities of virtually all organisations, including religious ones,' the report said. Christians faced restrictions and Muslims suffered violence and close monitoring.

Vietnam was praised for improving its religious rights, although the report said serious problems remain.

On Friday, a wires reporter in Vietnam was beaten by police who detained him while he covered a Catholic prayer vigil.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said US officials have protested the attack to Vietnam's government.

Mr McCormack told reporters that the United States has made clear that it stands 'up for religious freedom, the ability of people, no matter what their faiths, to be able to practice that freely, whether it's in Vietnam or elsewhere around the world.'

Mr Hanford said that, overall, the Vietnamese government is granting much more religious freedom than it has in the past. -- AP