China accused the United States of hypocrisy yesterday in its annual response to Washington?s criticism of Beijing?s human rights record, saying it had no right to blacken the name of other countries.

?As in previous years, the State Department pointed the finger at human rights conditions in more than 190 countries and regions, including China, but avoided touching on the human rights situation in the United States,? said the report, carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

China hopes its report will ?help people have a better understanding of the situation in the United States and promote the international cause of human rights?. It did not mention US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice?s admission this week that the United States did have its own human rights problems.

The report took aim at a variety of issues, including civilian deaths in Iraq, child poverty, racism, mistreatment of prisoners and the place of US women in the workplace.