Vietnam lashed out at a resolution introduced into the US Congress that accuses the communist regime of presiding over "egregious" abuses of religious freedom.
"We reject this draft resolution because it is wrong and fails to reflect the realities of Vietnam and does not conform to the developing relationship between Vietnam and the US," said foreign ministry spokesman Le Dung.
The non-binding legislation, introduced into the US House of Representatives on October 30, acknowledges the leadership of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) and calls for major improvements in religious freedom in the country.
In recent weeks, Vietnam has intensified a crackdown on the UBCV, placing senior monks under house arrest in a bid to split the church and isolate them from their followers, according to its overseas information arm.
The resolution "will send another clear message to the Vietnamese government that better relations between our two countries will only be achieved when there are notable improvements in human rights," said Nina Shea, who sits on the US Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).
Dung denied there was religious repression in Vietnam.
"We have repeatedly affirmed that in Vietnam no one is arrested or detained on religious grounds," he told reporters.
The foreign ministry, however, has admitted that three senior UBCV monks were placed last month under house arrest for two years for violating the country's strict national security legislation.
UBCV patriarch Thich Huyen Quang and his deputy Thich Quang Do were being investigated because "they violated Vietnamese law," Dung said.
The government has accused Quang, 86, and Do, 75 -- Vietnam's most prominent religious dissidents -- of being in possession of state secrets and trying to reorganize the church with the help of outside forces.
The new legislative assault on Vietnam came a week after the State Department's ambassador at large for religious freedom expressed concern at the situation in Vietnam after a fact finding visit to the communist nation.
USCIRF, a congressionally mandated rights watchdog, in September called on Secretary of State Colin Powell to nominate Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" on freedom of worship -- a move that could lead to sanctions.
The commission's appeal followed the imprisonment of two nephews and a niece of a jailed Catholic priest for passing on information about their uncle and the religious situation in Vietnam to US-based activists.
Despite frequently speaking out against Vietnam's record, the US State Department has so far declined to recommend that President George W. Bush designate Vietnam a "country of particular concern".