Vietnam's foreign minister used Britain's response to August riots to defend the human rights record of his government, which he said guaranteed fundamental freedoms, said an AFP report in The West Australian.

Pham was responding to a question during a visit this week to New York for the UN General Assembly, about the use of force on religious practitioners in Vietnam. In a May 2010 incident that drew the attention of the US Congress, residents said authorities used deadly force to break up a religious procession in the Roman Catholic parish of Con Dau.

Vietnam said the incident was a land dispute. Pham defended Vietnam's record, saying: "Even I myself cannot get into church on Sunday or... Christmas Eve. It's very crowded."

"So I don't see any kind of discriminations against... religious practice in Vietnam," he said.

"Our policies (are) always focusing on the betterment of the living standard of the people, and also along with that is the rights of the people. So that is our commitment to that," he said.

Pham said that Britain had raised concerns several years ago in a human rights dialogue about the communist nation's treatment of demonstrations.

"But look at the UK, all right?" Pham said at the Council on Foreign Relations. "If you had some security concern, you had to adopt some kind of measure. So that is normal."

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Vietnam cites London riots to defend rights record (The West Australian/AFP)

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