Hanoi - Vietnam called a US State Department report on religious freedom in the country "biased" and "misleading," the official Vietnam News reported Thursday.

The State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2009, released Monday, said local authorities had harassed some Buddhist and Christian denominations, but said overall religious freedom in Vietnam was improving.

"Vietnam's consistent policy is to respect every citizen's rights to the freedom of belief and religion," Vietnamese government spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said. "The US State Department's International Religious Freedom Report 2009 still includes biased assessments which are based on misleading information about the situation in Vietnam."

The report said "despite progress during the reporting period, significant problems remained with the implementation of the legal framework on religion, especially at the provincial and village levels."

It further noted that "religious groups encountered the greatest restrictions when they engaged in activities the government perceived as a challenge to its rule or to the authority of the Communist Party."

All religions in Vietnam are required to register with the government. While the government has recognized several new Christian and Buddhist denominations in the past year, others have been refused.

In recent months clashes have taken place between police and Catholics organizing rallies at the site of a former church in the province of Quang Binh.

More recently, 400 monastics affiliated with a Western-based Zen Buddhist group were forced out of Bat Nha monastery, near the southern tourist town of Dalat.

The US Embassy in Hanoi made an official statement criticizing the Bat Nha expulsions. (dpa)