Vietnam's official Communist Party newspaper on Friday accused the United States of using human rights to mask a policy of hegemony, singling out the Sino-US spy plane crisis as the latest example.

"In general, the new US government is trying to make their foreign policy hard, using human rights as cover to carry out hegemony. Where are they going?" the official Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan said in a back-page commentary.

The commentary said the United States had tried to portray the US spy plane incident in China as a human rights issue, even though the plane "trespassed and landed illegally at a Chinese airport".

"This is US human rights!" the commentary said. "Human rights from the point of view of the United States (or more precisely, the US government) should be understood as having a full right to do what it wants -- it's their right to enter and to spy. No one can touch them!"

(Agencies 04/06/2001)