The United States has reiterated concerns about human rights abuses in China, following the sentencing of a Hong Kong man for smuggling bibles into the country.

The US Embassy in Beijing said it remains troubled by the case of Li Guangqiang, who is reported to have been sentenced to two years in prison for bringing thousands of bibles to a religious group that is banned as a cult in China.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington expected China to live up to international standards of freedom of religious expression.

When Li was arrested last May, President Bush placed him at the top of Washington's list of dissidents it wanted released; correspondents say such pressure is believed to be a reason Li was not handed a harsher sentence.

Li was originally accused of spreading "an evil cult" - a crime that can carry the death penalty in China. But earlier this month, the charges against him were suddenly downgraded to charges of illegal trading.

With President Bush's trip to China only three weeks away, our correspondent in Beijing says Beijing is keen to counter allegations that it still engages in religious repression, particularly against China's Christian minority.

Li was sentenced on Monday by a court in Fuqing in southern China's Fujian province. Two men accused of helping him were jailed for three years.

Christian group

China earlier this month rejected US concerns over the case, saying that no other country should interfere with China's judicial independence.

The US State Department had called on Beijing to meet the standards on freedom of religious expression laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Li, 38, was delivering to the bibles to a group called the Shouters, a evangelical group in south-eastern China. Followers shout out their devotion.

It is one of the fastest-growing underground religious organisations in China and is believed to have around 500,000 followers.

In 1995 the organisation was banned as an "aberrant religious organisation".