'Anybody who knows about China will not agree on this report on the deterioration of the Chinese human rights situation,' Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters.

'We hope it (Amnesty) can take off the coloured glasses it has worn for many years to see China in an objective way.'

Amnesty released a report yesterday saying that the Chinese authorities had stepped up repression of rights activists and lawyers to silence dissent and present a picture of social harmony at the Games, which start on Aug 8.

It said that in the last year alone, thousands of petitioners, reformists and others have been arrested as part of a government campaign to 'clean up' Beijing before the Games.

It also said many of those arrested have been sentenced to manual labour without trial.

Chinese human rights activists elsewhere in the country have been targeted as well, Amnesty said in its report.

It cited the case of Sichuan-based activist Huang Qi, who was formally arrested earlier this month on charges of possessing state secrets.

It is believed that he has been targeted because of his work in helping families of children killed in the May 12 earthquake bring a legal case against the local authorities, according to Amnesty.

A Chinese lawyer said yesterday that a Beijing-based activist who had campaigned for the rights of people evicted from their homes for the Olympics would go on trial on Monday, four days before the Games start.

Ni Yulan, a 47-year-old former rights lawyer who was disbarred in 2002, has already been detained for three months.

Human Rights Watch researcher Nicholas Bequelin said the decision to put her on trial the same week that the Games were due to begin was 'an alarming gesture of defiance and a new setback for human rights in China'.

Amnesty said the Games, touted by Chinese and Olympics officials alike as a way to help expand freedom in the country, have instead led the government to muzzle critics.

'By continuing to persecute and punish those who speak out for human rights, the Chinese authorities have lost sight of the promises they made when they were granted the Games seven years ago. The Chinese authorities are tarnishing the legacy of the Games,' said Ms Roseann Rife, a deputy director in Asia for the London-based group.

The Amnesty report also took aim at China's media censorship, noting that some foreign journalists have been harassed by the authorities.

New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark has put her name to an Amnesty campaign aimed at pressuring China to improve its rights record ahead of the Games, the rights group said in Wellington.

However, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon star Zhang Ziyi said she is puzzled by activists' protests against China's human rights, a magazine reports.

'I don't see why people are so negative. The Games are about friendship,' the actress was quoted as saying in the current issue of Vogue magazine.

'I'm Chinese and I'm proud of my country.'

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, ASSOCIATED PRESS