BEIJING, Aug 25 (AFP) - China sentenced around 17 people to death every day last year, executing at least 4,367 in a draconian anti-crime campaign that ensnared juveniles and religious dissidents, Amnesty International said Tuesday.

The London-based human rights watchdog said it had logged more than 6,100 death sentences in 1996 -- more than the previous two years put together but stressed the figures were believed "to fall far short of the reality."

The group said Chinese media reports had confirmed 4,367 executions and 424 suspended death sentences, which are normally commuted to life imprisonment after two years' good behaviour.

Throughout the 1990s, more people have been executed or sentenced to death in China than in the rest of the world put together, and last year's figures broke all records since 1983.

The main force behind the 1996 surge was the nationwide "strike hard" anti-crime campaign launched at the end of April.

"This campaign was characterised by summary procedures and arbitrary punishment, with evidence of the death penalty falling disproportionately on people of a low social status," Amnesty said.

Originally slated to last just three months, the duration and scope of "strike hard" was repeatedly extended and widened, and has yet to be officially wrapped up.

"The reality of the "strike hard" campaign has contrasted starkly with the promise of a revitalised justice system by legal reforms announced the same year," Amnesty said.

"As long as the campaign continues, sincerity and commitment to these reforms will be called into question," it added.

The Amnesty report highlighted cases where death sentences were handed down to juveniles or used to clamp down on separatist movements in Tibet and the Moslem-majority region of Xinjiang.

The group recorded nine instances in which offenders, aged under 18 at the time of the crime, were given suspended death sentences, in contravention of international human rights standards.

"Alleged separatist activity in Xinjiang and Tibet was another target," Amnesty said, putting the number of death sentences passed in each region last year at 160 and 42 respectively.

The report also condemned the use of the death sentence for relatively minor offences, including the case of one man executed in the southwest province of Sichuan for stealing 14 cattle, and another in the southeastern province of Fujian for stealing six motorbikes.

While unable to confirm reports that a system of quotas for arrests and sentences was officially encouraged by "strike hard," Amnesty said it was clear that "police, judicial organs and local leaders were under pressure to achieve speedy results."

At least 534 people were sentenced to death for drug trafficking and possession last year, of whom 447 were confirmed to have been executed, most of them on or around world anti-drugs day on June 26.

Drug-related crimes are the 1997 focus of the strike-hard campaign, a spokesman for the Beijing Higher Intermediate People's Court said Monday.

"Strike hard is a long-term campaign. It will never end, just change its focus every year," the spokesman said.

In its report, Amnesty voiced optimism that domestic opposition against the death penalty was growing in China, where the number of capital crimes has more than tripled since the promulagtion of the Criminal Law in 1980.

According to Chinese media reports, however, a legislative debate on the issue earlier this year concluded that the death penalty still enjoyed significant popular support.