Rights activists reported being placed under house arrest, harassed and intimidated in an effort to stop them speaking out during Clinton's trip to China, the final leg of her four-nation Asian tour.

"I am under house arrest because Hillary Clinton came," Zeng Jinyan, one of China's most prominent dissidents and wife of jailed activist Hu Jia, told AFP via an Internet message.

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders group also said that a number of dissidents had been put under residential surveillance, questioned and followed by Beijing police during Clinton's 40-hour visit that began late Friday.

Their comments came after Clinton said she would ensure the sensitive issue of human rights did not jeopardise her efforts to seek cooperation with China's communist leaders on major issues of global concern.

"Successive administrations and Chinese governments have been poised back and forth on these (rights) issues and we have to continue to press them," Clinton told reporters in Seoul just before leaving for Beijing.

"But our pressing on those issues can't interfere on the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crisis."

Clinton's comments triggered a fierce reaction from human rights groups around the world, with Amnesty International saying it was "shocked and extremely disappointed".

"The United States is one of the only countries that can meaningfully stand up to China on human rights issues," said T. Kumar, Asia advocacy director with Amnesty International USA.

Clinton's visit comes at a particularly sensitive time for China's leadership, with a series of controversial anniversaries looming.

March 10 marks 50 years since a failed uprising in Tibet against Chinese rule that led to the Dalai Lama fleeing his homeland. The Tibetan government-in-exile says the Chinese army killed 87,000 people in the crackdown.

And on June 4 it will be 20 years since the so-called Tiananmen Massacre when Chinese troops crushed democracy protests in Beijing, leaving hundreds, if not thousands, dead.

Zeng, 25 and with a young daughter, said security police monitoring her at her Beijing apartment told her she would not be allowed outside on Saturday.

In a blog posting, Zeng wrote that she had intended on Saturday to meet Gao Yaojie, an AIDS activist from central China who was due to arrive in Beijing ahead of a planned meeting with Clinton on Sunday.

"I was very angry. I even cursed... but I breathed deeply and called my friend to send Gao to the hotel, and then I fed my baby," Zeng said.

In her comments to AFP, Zeng said it was important that people inside and outside China maintained their efforts to promote human rights.

The Chinese Human Rights Defenders said police had also told Jiang Qisheng, a Tiananmen activist previously jailed for his pro-democracy work, not to meet with Clinton.

The group named other activists it said had been harassed and were notable for signing Charter 'O8, a petition released last year calling for political reform in China that authorities in Beijing are apparently furious over.

After meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, Clinton defended herself against accusations she had betrayed the human rights cause by treading softly on the issue with China's leaders.

She told reporters she had raised human rights issues with Yang, as she had done with other leaders during her previous stops in Japan, Indonesia and South Korea over the past week.

"I have said the promotion of human rights is an essential aspect of US global foreign policy. I have raised the issue on every stop on this trip and I have done so here in my conversations with the foreign minister," she said.

Clinton met President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao later on Saturday.

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