China's State Council, or cabinet, issued its own report on alleged US human rights violations in retaliation after the US State Department singled out Beijing for criticism in its annual worldwide rights report.

On Thursday, the US report slammed China's human rights record highlighting increased repression in the restive Tibet and Xinjiang regions, and the detention and harassment of activists.

"The government's human rights record remained poor and worsened in some areas," the State Department said.

The angry Chinese reaction was the latest in a series of tit-for-tat allegations by the two countries, whose relations have been badly strained for months over trade and currency issues, Tibet, Taiwan and Internet freedom.

"As in previous years, the (US) reports are full of accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China, but turn a blind eye to, or dodge and even cover up, rampant human rights abuses on its own territory," the State Council said, according to Xinhua news agency.

The State Council said the United States had used the rights issue as a "political instrument to interfere in other countries' internal affairs, defame other nations' image and seek its own strategic interests."

Beijing said the world was enduring a "serious human rights disaster" due to the global financial slowdown -- recalling that it had been fuelled by the US subprime mortgage crisis.

"The US government still ignores its own serious human rights problems but revels in accusing other countries. It is really a pity," the Chinese government report said.

Xinhua noted it was the 11th year running that China had issued its own assessment of Washington's human rights record in response to the State Department's annual report.

It accused the US of restricting citizens' rights, citing security measures put in place after the 9/11 attacks as a breach of individual freedoms, and said freedom of the press was "subordinate to its national interests".

China said workers' rights had been "seriously violated" in the United States, citing press reports about unpaid overtime and wage cuts, and lamented the increasing number of people without health insurance.

It also targeted the "abuse of power" of US law enforcement -- citing an investigation of four Washington-area police officers on suspicion of taking bribes to protect a gambling ring, and one case of police road rage.

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