BRUSSELS, Feb 14 (Reuter) - A human rights group on Friday urged new U.S. secretary of state Madeleine Albright to press for an improvement in China's human rights record when she visits Beijing later this month.

"We urge you to use your upcoming visit to Beijing to press for practical, concrete measures to improve human rights and to stress that good Sino-U.S. relations depend on those improvements taking place," Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

"Dialogue is desirable, but it is not enough as long as civil liberties in Hong Kong are threatened, dissidents and business people in China are arbitrarily detained, restrictions on the media are toughened..." it said.

The statement, released in Brussels ahead of a visit by Albright the European Union and NATO next week as part of a nine-country tour which will also take in China, also pointed to an increase in repression in Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang.

Human Rights Watch said it wanted Albright to press for agreement to allow regular access to China's prisons, detention centres and labour camps by international humanitarian agencies and for a list of names of all Chinese and Tibetan prisoners sentenced for counter-revolutionary offences.

It also urged pressure on Beijing to open Tibet and Xinjiang to regular, unrestricted access by foreign journalists and international human rights monitors and access for international medical teams to prisoners under house arrest with serious health problems.