A semi-official US religious freedom watchdog called on the Bush administration to include India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam in a state list of violators of religious freedom.
The others the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom wanted included in the list of "countries of particular concern" (CPC) are Eritrea and Turkmenistan.
The 10-member commission also recommended in its 2004 report that Myanmar, China, North Korea, Iran and Sudan remain on the CPC list.
It urged the authorities to also retain Egypt, Indonesia, Nigeria and Uzbekistan on the so-called "watch list" of countries where "religious freedom conditions do not rise to the statutory level requiring CPC designation but which warrant close monitoring."
"The commission concluded this year that nothing has changed to warrant the removal of any of these countries other than Iraq from the US government's CPC designations," the report said.
Laos, Belarus, Cuba and Georgia have been proposed to be included in the watch list this year.
The commission said Iraq could be removed from the list as it was satisfied with the religious freedom policy implemented after the fall of dictator Saddam Hussein and his Baathist regime.
The commission has already forwarded its recommendations to Secretary of State Colin Powell, chairman Michael Young told a news conference.
The government can impose sanctions against countries that had been identified by the commission.
The commission said its recommendations were made after reviewing evidence throughout the year on countries where governments "may have engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious abuses of freedom of religion."
The commission was set up by US law in 1998 to independently advise the government and Congress on violations of the internationally-guaranteed right to religious freedom or beliefs and on how best to promote it, officials said.
Young urged Powell and President George W. Bush to "deal with the abuses" in the countries that had been identified and "work with them to try to map out programs where abuses can be reduced or eliminated."
The commission uses the State Department's annual report on global human rights violations as part of the basis for its recommendations.
On Saudi Arabia, it said the government forcefully banned all forms of public religious expression other than that of the government's interpretation of one school of Sunni Islam.
The commission cited violence, including fatal attacks, against Muslims and Christians in India, saying the government had yet to address adequately the killing of an estimated 2,000 Muslims in the state of Gujarat in 2002.
In China, the commission charged that repression of religious freedom continued to be a "deliberate policy of the Chinese government," citing "violent campaigns" including against the Falun Gong movement.
Pakistan was hauled up for "inadequate government response to vigilante violence frequently perpetrated by Sunni militants against Shi'as, Ahmadis, and Christians" while Vietnam was accused of imprisoning key religious dissidents.
The commission urged the State Department to monitor closely the eight countries in the watch list and "to respond vigorously" to further violations that may merit CPC designation.