HANOI - Communist Vietnam said on Saturday religion in the country was thriving, despite recent international accusations that it was repressing freedoms by placing church leaders under restriction.
Le Quang Vinh, head of the government Committee on Religion, told a news conference on the fringes of a five-yearly Communist Party congress that Vietnam respected freedom of religion but would not tolerate attempts to use it to undermine the party.
"The party and state are committed to freedom of religious practice," he said.
"But we prohibit anyone taking unfair advantage of religion...in the past some forces opposed to national independence have taken advantage of religion."
He said religious property was confiscated only if a religious organisation was working against the state or the people.
Vinh indicated attitudes could soften in the future.
"I'm not suggesting our policy is perfect, that it will not be changed. The policy is not dogmatic," he said.
Vinh's comments come at a time when religious and other rights issues could hurt Vietnam's hopes for early U.S. ratification of a landmark agreement which would open up the United States market to Vietnamese goods.
Vinh said authorities had never arrested, detained or put under surveillance people for their religious beliefs.
The government argues that all detainees are common criminals, but its restrictions on religious leaders have drawn criticism from rights groups in Europe and the United States.
Earlier this month, a Norwegian member of parliament was detained and asked to leave Vietnam after visiting dissident religious leaders under house arrest.
He had met 73-year-old dissident Buddhist monk and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Quang Do in Ho Chi Minh City and dissident Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly in Hue.
Both men are under restriction at their places of worship after criticising religious restrictions.
The Bush administration has already said it is considering linking the Vietnamese agreement to trade pacts with other countries, possibly delaying ratification by two years.
Early this month the Committee on International Religious Freedom, an advisory body to the U.S. Congress, called on Washington not to support more than $750 million in loans for Vietnam from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on grounds of rights abuses.
Washington abstained in a vote approving the $368 million IMF package and is likely to do the same for the World Bank although the action is not expected to stop the disbursements.
Vinh said the party had no problem with religions registered with state agencies that involved voluntary practice, were not contrary to state law and did not "practise superstition."
When asked, he did not say which religious practices were unacceptable, nor what action could be taken against them.
Hanoi authorises six religious groups and according to official figures, 20 percent of its 80 million people practise a religion in 60,000 places of worship.
Of these, 7.6 million are Buddhists, five million are Catholics, 500,000 are Protestants and 2.6 million are members of Buddhist sects.
05:37 04-21-01
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