WASHINGTON, Dec 27 (Reuter) - The United States said on Friday it was concerned at China's reported sentencing of a Tibetan-born former Fulbright scholar to 18 years in prison on espionage charges.

"The United States is quite concerned" about the reported prison term handed down to Ngawang Choephel, 30, who was detained by Chinese authorities in Tibet in 1995, State Department spokesman John Dinger told reporters.

The United States knew nothing of his activities other than making a documentary, Dinger said. "We have no independent information that he was in fact involved in any other activities" than videotaping the documentary about Tibet's traditional music and dance, he said.

Ngawang Choephel studied ethnomusicology at Middlebury College in Vermont in 1992-93 as a Fulbright scholar, an international educational exchange programme funded by the U.S. Information Agency.

The International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington-based group that monitors human rights, said he had been filming a documentary about traditional Tibetan music and dance that he feared would be lost because of alleged Chinese efforts to dilute local culture. He was arrested in a market in Shigatse, Tibet, on or about Sept. 15, 1995.

Contrary to some published reports, he had not been travelling as a Fulbright scholar at the time of his arrest, Dinger said. "I think I can assure you he was not there under U.S. auspices certainly not a Fulbright scholar and to the best of my knowledge he was not there on any other activities connected to the United States."

A Chinese radio report monitored by the British Broadcasting Corporation said Ngawang Choephel had confessed to having been sent to Tibet by "the Dalai (Lama) clique" on behalf of an unnamed foreign country to conduct espionage activities.

In an Oct. 15 letter to members of Congress who had asked about Ngawang Choephel's disappearance, Chinese Ambassdor to the United States Li Daoyou alleged that the Tibetan, "funded by some Americans" and posing as a film maker, had been gathering intelligence and fostering "illegal separatist activities."

China frequently accuses the Dalai Lama, the spiritual and political leader of more than 6 million Tibetans and winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, of fomenting anti-Chinese revolt in Tibet, which Chinese troops entered in large numbers in 1950.

The State Department repeated that it was concerned about the preservation of Tibet's unique cultral, linguistic and religious heritage. In addition, the department said it was continuing to urge the Chinese authorities to release all those held for the peaceful expression of their political or religious views.

The International Campaign for Tibet dismissed Ngawang Choephel's reported confession as insignificant because of possible duress. "Everyone knows that all confessions are imposed" in China and Tibet, said Bhuchung Tsering, a spokesman for the campaign in Washington.