BEIJING, Sept 3 (AFP) - China warned the United States Tuesday to back down on human rights issues or face a disintegration of the entire Sino-US relationship.

"US human rights diplomacy is sabotaging the foundation of normal cooperation between the two countries and is cultivating mistrust," the China Daily said in a signed editorial.

"Human rights issues have become so sensationalized that they have seem to have taken precedence over other disputes including trade practices," it added.

Warning that relations had already sunk to a low ebb, the article accused Washington of trying to complete its self-proclaimed Cold War victory by pushing Beijing towards a multi-party political system.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Washington took it for granted that China would "take a similar step towards democracy," it said.

"The bitter confrontations between China and the United States have been instigated by Uncle Sam ... Out of self-interest, the United States has started to exploit human rights issues to contain China," it added.

The strong criticism followed a warning from Premier Li Peng on Monday that China would never follow the path of western democracies.

"Western countries should not hope that China will copy their models, since it has its own style of developing democracy and law," Li told visiting Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen.

Li said "political bias" was also an impediment to relations with the West, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

However, the China Daily commentary went further, and pinpointed Washington's "long standing anti-Communist stance" as the basis of difficulties.

It criticized the annual "unbridled attacks" on China's human rights by the US State Department and distorted media reports on China's prisoners, orphans and repression in Tibet.

It also said that the United States was providing sanctuary for criminals intent on overthrowing the Chinese government and slammed the US imposition of sanctions on China after the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy demonstrators.

Beijing frequently attacks Washington's China policy and relations betweeen the two powers have been fraught with difficulties for more than a decade, although bilateral trade has risen sharply during that period.