by Carole Landry

WASHINGTON, Oct 30 (AFP) - Three US religious leaders known for their firm stance against religious persecution began preparations Thursday for a visit to China billed here as a step by Beijing towards openness.

The fact-finding mission, which will include Tibet, is expected to take place in early January, said Don Argue, president of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Argue, Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and Rabbi Arthur Schneier of the New-York based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, an interfaith organisation, were invited by Beijing ahead of Chinese President Jiang Zemin's US visit.

China's acquiescence to the mission was hailed by President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as a "welcome step" showing Beijing's willingness to engage with the United States on the issue of religious freedom.

Details of the trip were being finalized as the Vatican announced in Rome that an underground Roman Catholic bishop arrested three weeks ago after 17 months in hiding had been freed.

Su Zhimin, 65, bishop of the northern city of Baoding, was arrested on October 8 at Xinji, some 280 kilometres (175 miles) south of Beijing.

A Catholic human rights group, Free the Fathers, based in Chattanooga, Tenessee, challenged Albright to verify the release.

"This is just a smokescreen by the Chinese government to mask their diabolical persecution of Christians," said group president John Davies in a statement.

An appeal for the bishop's release was made as Chinese President Jiang Zemin began a state visit to the United States earlier this week, the Vatican said.

Meanwhile in a statement from Shanghai released in the United States Shanghai's Cardinal Gong Pinmei, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shanghai, called on Jiang to implement religious freedom.

He appealed to the Chinese president "to defend the rights of Chinese citizens to true religious freedom and to permit the Roman Catholics to maintain religious communion with the Pope in order to keep the fullness of their faith."

The decision to send US religious leaders to China coincides with Albright's decision to appoint a coordinator for Tibet.

The coordinator, who is expected to be named Friday while Jiang is in New York, will seek direct talks between Beijing and Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A deputy assistant secretary for Labor at the State Department, Gare Smith, has been rumored as a strong contender for the position.

In separate interviews to AFP, Argue and Schneier both underscored that their mission to China to discuss religious freedom enjoyed the full support of the White House and the State Department.

"We are not going over there just to chat," said Schneier, who has traveled to China several times. "We are going over there with some specific requests, an agenda... some individual cases."

Argue said he sought assurances from the administration which he received that the visit would not be mere window-dressing.

"I told them: 'If this is a managed trip where we see what they want us to see then I am not interested in going," said Argue, who traveled to China in 1986.

"There is persecution going on and we want to be there to see," he said.

The National Association of Evangelicals, which represents over 70 denominations, independent churches and educational institutions last year launched a campaign to give the United States a stronger voice in defending religious freedom worldwide.

McCarrick, who is archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, has traveled to China several times and was part of a delegation that convinced Cuban President Fidel Castro to lift some restrictions on Catholics in Cuba in 1988.

Aside from Tibet, the delegation plans to travel to areas where Christians and other believers have been targeted, although final details have yet to be worked out.