WASHINGTON, Feb. 26 (AP) - As U.S Secretary of State Colin Powell was winding up a Mideast tour that featured appeals to Israel and the Palestinians to end the violence, the State Department issued a report Monday criticizing the rights record of both sides during 2000.

The department's annual report on human rights conditions worldwide also said China's human rights record deteriorated last year, with intensified crackdowns on religion, political dissent and ``any person or group perceived to threaten the government.''

Because of the perceived retrogression, the State Department announced plans Monday to seek China's censure by the U.N. Human Rights Commission when it convenes for its annual meeting next month in Geneva. The initiative had been widely anticipated.

There also were harsh words in the report for the combatants in the civil war in Colombia, whose President, Andres Pastrana, will meet with President George W. Bush on Tuesday. The report ranked Iraq and North Korea among the world's worst human rights violators.

On the plus side, the study found a number of advances in human rights, democracy, and fundamental freedoms last year, citing the examples of Yugoslavia, Mexico, Nigeria and Ghana. Another bright spot was the peace agreement that ended a two-year war between Eritrea and Ethiopia.

The congressionally-mandated report, issued each February, was released as Powell was winding up visits to Israel, the Palesinian territories and several Arab countries.

One of those countries was Syria, where the report said the government continues to deny its citizens fundamental human rights, while noting slight improvements in some areas.

There was ``a slight loosening'' of censorhip last year, the department said.

And although the government does not officially allow independent domestic human rights groups to exist, there were reports that several such organizations and civil society groups began meeting regularly during the year, it said.

But overall, the the Ba'th Party dominates the political system, citizens do not have the right to change their government and officials use their ``vast powers so effectively that there is no organized political opposition.''

``Serious abuses'' include the widespread use of torture, poor prison conditions, arbitrary arrest, detention without trial, unfair trials; a corrupt and inefficient judiciary, the report said of Syria.

The powerful role of the security services in government stems in part from the state of emergency that has been in place almost continuously since 1963, the report said. The government justifies martial law because of the state of war with Israel and past threats from terrorist groups.

The State Department report faulted both Israel and the Palestinian Authority for the bloodshed that occurred between the two during the last three months of 2000. The study did not take into account developments since then.

In Israel, security forces used ``excessive force'' to disperse demonstrations that coincided with the outbreak of violence in the occupied territories, killing 13 Arab citizens and injuring over 300, the report said.

They also ``committed numerous serious human rights abuses during the year'' in the occupied territories, killing 307 Palestinians and injuring another 11,300 during the year, it said.

``Israeli security forces targeted for killing a number of Palestinians whom the Israeli government stated had attacked or were planning future attacks on Israeli settlements or military targets,'' the report said.

The overall human rights record of the Palestinian Authority was poor, worsening during 2000 mainly due to the sustained violence that began in late September, according to the report.

``Members of Palestinian security services and Fatah's Tanzim participated in violent attacks. Armed Palestinians, some of them members of Palestinian security forces, fired at Israeli civilians or soldiers from within or close to the homes of Palestinian civilians,'' it said.

It added that Palestinian security forces also failed to prevent armed Palestinians from opening fire on Israelis in places in which Palestinians were present.

In China, there were more crackdowns on religion, on political dissent and on ``any person or group perceived to threaten the government,'' the State Department.

It said thousands of unregistered religious institutions had been either closed or destroyed by year's end and that hundreds of leaders of the Falun Gong spiritual sect had been imprisoned.

``Thousands of others remained in a detention or were sentenced to re-education-through-labor camps or incarcerated in mental institutions,'' the report said. It also said there was an intensified crackdown in Tibet during the year.

Despite these setbacks, the report said, ``many Chinese had more individual choice, greater access to information, and expanded economic opportunity'' as Marxist ideology continued to give way to economic pragmatism.

The performance in communist North Korea ``remained poor,'' the report said, charging ``numerous serious abuses.''

``The leadership perceives most international norms of human rights, especially individual rights, as illegitimate, alien and subversive,'' the report said, noting the death penalty and confiscation of assets can be used for attempting to defect, slandering state policy and listening to foreign broadcasts.

The North Korean government prohibits freedom of speech, the press, assembly and association, and all forms of cultural and media activities.

The report criticized the highly authoritarian, ``sometimes brutal,'' military regime in Myanmar, also known as Burma.

``Arbitrary arrest and detention for expression of dissenting political views continued to be a common practice,'' the report said.

The government continued to hold Aung San Suu Kyi in detention as well as 48 members-elect of parliament and more than 1,000 supporters - part of a decade-long effort to prevent the parliament elected in 1990 from taking office.

Other highlights:

In Vietnam, there was some measurable improvement in a few areas, but there were ``numerous abuses'' of basic political and religious freedoms. The government allowed citizens somewhat greater freedom of expression and assembly to express grievances, including by delegates in the National Assembly, citizens in local forums with delegates, and small groups of protesters outside government offices.

But it continues to restrict freedom of religion and significantly restrict the operation of religious organizations other than those approved by the state.

Pakistan's government committed ``numerous serious abuses; however, there were improvements in some areas, particularly with respect to freedom of the press.''

Citizens continued to be denied the right to choose or change their government peacefully in Pakistan, where Gen. Pervez Musharraf overthrew the elected civilian government in a coup, named himself chief executive and suspended the constitution and parliament.

There were fewer extrajudicial killings than in 1999, but police continued to abuse and rape citizens without being prosecuted.

Several major political leaders remained in jail or in self-imposed exile abroad. There was discrimination against women and violence against children.

India's government generally respected human rights in some areas but ``numerous serious problems'' remain.

The report said those included extradjudical killings, excessive force against insurgencies in Jammu and Kashmir and several northeastern states, and torture and rape by police and other government agents.

There also was harassment of human rights monitors; extensive violence against women; legal discrimination against women; female bondage and forced prostitution as well as child prostitution and infanticide.

The Congo was awash with human rights violations last year, committed by its own government and foreign-backed rebels in the country's two-year-old war, the report said.

Government aircraft routinely bombed civilian populated areas in rebel-held territory. Adults and children were forced into military service - though to a lesser extent than in the previous year.

And the government continued to harass, arrest and torture journalists, the department said in its annual report on human rights around the world.

``Harassment of journalists, human rights activists, and opposition politicians increased during the year,'' the report said.

It also said security forces were responsible for ``numerous extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, beatings, rape, and other abuses'' - committed with impunity.

Congolese forces are backed by Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia and the governments of Rwanda and Uganda took up arms alongside Congo rebels in August 1998.

Those anti-government rebel forces were guilty as well, the report said.

The rebel groups subjected people living in territories under their control to deliberate large-scale killings, disappearances, torture, rape and dismemberment. The report said they also used extortion, arbitrary arrests and detention, harassment of human rights workers and journalists conscription of child soldiers.