GENEVA, April 8 (Reuter) - U.S. and Danish officials worked on Tuesday on the first draft of a resolution expressing concern at continuing reports of human rights abuses in China, an American official said.

The U.S. human rights official in Geneva, in an interview with Reuters, said the motion had at least 12 co-sponsors so far and Washington would lobby intensively in capitals worldwide to clinch crucial swing votes at the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

But he said China's delegation was expected to present its own ``no-action motion'' seeking to quash all debate on Tuesday when the 53 member states vote on the Western resolution.

Many Western diplomats and U.N. sources expect Beijing to escape formal censure for the seventh straight year at the six-week session. Last year 27 states voted in favour of China's no-action motion, 20 voted against with six abstentions.

Beijing is fighting to avoid international censure on its human rights record after Denmark said on Monday it would press ahead with a resolution despite European Union discord on presenting its own drafts in past years.

``We have worked out a tentative text. The U.S. has said it will co-sponsor. We have at least 12 co-sponspors now,'' the American official said.

``We are going full speed ahead at this juncture,'' he added.

``We will be doing intensive lobbying in all capitals where we think there are swing votes,'' he said.

Danish Foreign Minister Niels Helveg Petersen said on Monday his country would not back down from tabling the resolution despite warnings from Beijing of a political and trade backlash.

The Commission has six new members this year who are being wooed by the United States for support: Argentina, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Uruguay, South Africa and Zaire.

``The Russians abstained last year. We would like them to at least do that again or ideally get with us,'' the official said, adding that Ukraine would also be lobbied.

``We expect China to bring a no-action motion to try to pre-empt. Hopefully they won't have enough votes to win on a no-action motion, but that has yet to be determined,'' he said. ``Then we couldn't even get to a resolution on the merits.''

The U.S. State Department's annual human rights report in January accused China of effectively silencing all public dissent against the communist party and government in 1996.

The draft resolution, still subject to changes as Denmark and the United States seek wider sponsorship, is similar but stronger than last year's text, according to the U.S. official.

It calls for releasing political prisoners and improving administration of justice, as well as protection of cultural, ethnic and religious identities of Tibetans and other groups.

It cites positive steps but ``expresses concern at continuing reports of human rights abuses and fundamental freedoms in China, severe restrictions of citizens to freedoms of assembly, association, expression and religion as well as due process and fair trial,'' the U.S. official said.

The draft expresses concern about increased restrictions on the cultural and religious freedoms of Tibetans and calls for clearing up the fate of the boy chosen as the 11th Panchen Lama, Tibet's second holiest monk, by the spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Western rights groups have accused China of detaining Gedhun Choekyi Nyima after choosing another boy in his place as the reincarnated ``soul boy'' of the late 10th Panchen Lama.

The draft expresses concern about persecution and harsh sentences on those who exercise their right to peaceful assembly.

It urges China to sign both the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights -- the two key global human rights pacts.

China's President Jiang Zemin told visiting French Defence Minister Charles Millon on Tuesday that Beijing would sign the social rights covenant before year-end but he was silent on the political freedom pact deemed by activists as more important.