The United States accused governments in five Asian states, including China and North Korea, as well as Cuba of pursuing a totalitarian drive to brand religious groups "enemies of the state."
In its annual report on International Religious Freedom for 2003, the State Department also raised concern over a "disturbing increase" in anti-Semitism in Europe.
The report assailed the Islamic states of Iran and Saudi Arabia as the worst violators of religious freedom in the Middle East.
The six most grevious offenders highlighted by the report were Myanmar, China, North Korea, Laos, Vietnam and Cuba, categorised as totalitarian or authoritarian regimes which see religion as a challenge to the dominant ideology.
China earned a reprimand for trying to restrict religious observance to government-sanctioned organisations, and the report said some believers were subject to harrassment, interference and detention.
"Police closed underground mosques, temples, and seminaries as well as some Catholic churches and Protestant 'house churches'," the executive summary of the report said, adding that many religious leaders had been arrested.
The report concluded that China had continued to repress the banned Falungong spiritual movement, which it has designated as a "cult."
In North Korea " genuine religious freedom does not exist," according to the report, which cited reports of execution, torture and imprisonment of religious figures in the country.
Vietnam, with which the US government has maintained a bruising public dialogue on human rights and religious issues, was accused of placing "significant restrictions" on freedom of worship.
Neighboring Laos won some praise for improving religious freedom in some areas, but a rebuke for permitting a falloff in other regions.
Myanmar, the subject of regular US criticisms over its repression of political freedom, earned a new black mark on religion.
"Through its pervasive internal security apparatus, the government infiltrated or monitored the meetings and activities of virtually all organizations, including religious organisations," the report said.
Christian, Muslim and Buddhist groups all experienced harrassment from the authorities, and religious publications fell foul of censorship laws.
Another long standing US bete-noire, Cuba, also earned a place reserved for totalitarian states. Government agents used surveillance, infiltration and harrassment against groups, clergy and believers, according to the report.
A second batch of states while not deemed guilty of an authoritarian bid to silence religious freedom, were accused of hostility to certain groups seen as security threats.
That category included Uzbekistan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Turkmenistan, as well as Iraq, prior to the toppling of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime by US forces.
The designations in the report do not carry sanctions, but Iran is already subject to myriad US restrictions and continues to be listed under a separate designation as a "country of particular concern" in the area of religious freedom.
Despite calls from religious freedom and human rights watchdogs, Saudi Arabia, a key US ally in the Middle East, is not designated a "country of particular concern" although Thursday's report equates conditions there with those in Iran.
"These governments implement policies designed to intimidate certain groups, cause their adherents to convert to another faith or cause their members to flee," the report said.
In Iran, "members of the country's religious minorities ... suffered varying degrees of officially sanctioned discrimination, including intimidation, harassment and imprisonment," the report said, referring to Baha'is, Jews, Christians, Sunni and Sufi Muslims.