BEIJING, Jan 17 (AFP) - China Friday accused a leading human rights organization of fabricating alleged human rights abuses, defending criminals and drug traffickers and of supporting the "separatist" cause in Tibet.

But a director of Human Rights Watch/Asia in Hong Kong, Robin Munro, immediately rejected the accusation, terming it "ridiculous."

The official Xinhua news agency said the New York-based Human Rights Watch "intentionally fabricates 10 to 20 so-called individual cases in order to frame up charges on criminal violations of human rights against China and vilify the country."

Xinhua was citing an official of the quasi-governmental China Society for the Study of Human Rights.

The official, who was not identified, also blasted Human Rights Watch's criticism of China's anti-crime "Strike Hard Campaign," in which at least 2,300 people have been executed and tens of thousands sentenced to long prison terms since it was launched last April.

By criticising the anti-crime campaign, Human Rights Watch is giving tacit support to "murder and robbery, and for involvement in trafficking of narcotics, arms and even women and children," the official was quoted as saying.

He also accused the human rights group of giving support to an independence movement in Tibet by creating separate categories for Tibet and China in its human rights abuse report issued in December.

"The report's chapter on China ignores the fact that Tibet is an inseparable part of the Chinese territory ... by titling the chapter 'China and Tibet' and thereby purposefully implying a division exists between the two," he said.

"This is clearly disrespectful of China's state sovereignty and territorial integrity and fully exposes the actual intention of the Human Rights Watch to split China under the guise of human rights," he said.

China seized control of Tibet in 1951 and put down a Tibetan revolt in 1959, after which Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to neighboring India.

The Chinese official also charged the US-based body of acting as "the most aggressive vanguard of the anti-China force." It was "established during the period of the Cold War" and it is "swimming against the tide of our times," in keeping to this attitude, Xinhua said.

In its reaction to the Human Rights Watch report, the Chinese organisation fails to make any mention of China's prominent dissidents Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan.

Wei, who has had a mere six months out of prison in the past 17 years, was sentenced in December 1995 to a 14-year term while Wang Dan, a leader during the 1989 pro-democracy student movement that was crushed by the army, was handed an 11-year term in October.

However, the Chinese official mentioned Guo Haifeng, sentenced in September by a tribunal in central China's Henan province to seven years in prison for "hooliganism."

Guo, who had already received a four-year jail term for his role in the 1989 movement, was found guilty of helping another dissident to flee abroad, Human Rights Watch said.

But, according to the China Society for the Study of Human Rights, Guo "raped six women, married or unmarried, in defiance of laws, by tempting them with the ways of talking about love affairs or buying houses."

Robin Munro described the charges as "ridiculous" and said if Guo "had been convicted of raping six women, he would be dead by now, as rape is an executionable offence."

Munro said the charges were "nonsense and character assassination" and added: "This is from a government that says Wei Jingsheng is a common criminal, so we should hardly be surprised when they apply the same shoddy propaganda to lesser-known cases."

He said the tone adopted in the Chinese reply was hardly convincing.

"I don't think it's a very effective bit of government propaganda," Munro said.

"Surprisingly little effort has been put into making it effective and persuasive. I don't think it's going to convince many readers."

In another report published this week, Human Rights Watch asked US Vice President Al Gore to drop plans to visit China this year until Beijing improves its human rights record.