Hanoi, Vietnam - Vietnam rejected a U.S. report which named it along with China, North Korea and Myanmar as serious violators of religious freedom, saying on Wednesday Washington was wrong.
"We reject the U.S. decision to continue to include Vietnam in the list of 'countries of particular concern' on religious freedom," Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in a statement posted on the ministry Web site (www.mofa.gov.vn).
"This is a wrongful decision which does not reflect correctly the religious freedom situation in Vietnam," he said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, introducing the annual State Department report to Congress covering 197 countries, said Vietnam had made progress, including signing a pact with Washington on how it would improve religious rights.
John Hanford, the U.S. envoy for international religious freedom, said Hanoi had made some "very significant efforts to improve religious freedom," including passing new laws, releasing 14 prisoners and opening some closed churches.
The United States placed Vietnam on a blacklist of "countries of particular concern" last year for abusing rights to worship, which can lead to various political and economic sanctions should the government choose to apply them.
"Vietnam calls on the U.S. side to have a realistic view so as to have a right decision in line with the principles of bilateral relations as well as avoiding a bad impact on the recent progress in the Vietnam-U.S. ties," Dung said.