By The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department's first report on the worldwide persecution of Christians accused China Tuesday of sharply restricting religious freedom, including beatings and raiding private homes to break up worship services.

The report also called on Russian President Boris Yeltsin to veto proposed legislation that would restrict religious freedom there for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union six years ago.

The study details international restrictions on religious freedom in 78 countries and is part of an increased administration emphasis on religious freedom abroad.

Congress last year mandated a report on U.S. efforts to reduce international restrictions on Christianity. But the State Department broadened its focus to include other persecuted groups, such as Tibetans in China and animists in the Sudan.

The Chinese government has regularly violated constitutional guarantees of religious rights, cracking down on unregistered Catholic and Protestant groups, raiding worship groups meeting in private homes and sometimes detaining, interrogating or beating leaders, the report said. China limits ``all actual religious practice'' to government-authorized organizations and ``registered places of worship,'' the report said.

Four underground Roman Catholic bishops have been imprisoned or detained, and many priests have been searched and religious articles seized.

The U.S. government says that it has pressed for religious freedom at meetings with Chinese officials and sometimes discussed specific cases of jailed Christians. President Clinton and other senior officials have also met with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Unlike annual human rights studies, the State Department report tries to describe actions taken by the United States to ``eliminate religious discrimination, intolerance and persecution throughout the world.''

Under the proposed law in Russia, restrictions would be imposed on religions not registered 15 years ago when atheism was the official doctrine and religious dissidents were persecuted.

The proposal says independent Baptists, Mormons and Pentecostals would not be able to own property, publish literature or worship publicly.

In Iran, government repression of evangelical Christians increased last year and four Bahais were sentenced to death for apostasy, the report said.

Jehovah's Witnesses have been attacked in Israel and in Singapore, according to the report.

Freedom of religion does not exist in Saudi Arabia, where the government prohibits the practice of all religions except Islam. U.S. officials have regularly protested that nation's religious policy.