HANOI Vietnam's Communist Party official newspaper savaged the United States Saturday following Washington's loss of its long-held seat on the UN Human Rights Commission, saying the capitalist superpower is responsible for the deaths of "millions" of people.

DPA quoted the newspaper, **** Nhan Dan (The People)****, as saying Washington's "hectoring attitude" toward human rights issues in the rest of the world led to their ouster from the commission.

"Invoking human rights,' (the U.S.) intervened in Iraq and Kosovo, threatened others, and imposed prolonged economic sanctions elsewhere on the planet, causing millions of deaths and driving millions of others into poverty and impoverishment," it said.

It also lambasted Washington for pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol, going ahead with its national missile defense program, being "against production of cheap AIDS drugs," and for "employing every trick" to achieve censure of socialist states.

"The U.S. put pressure on many countries and international organizations to stop or restrict cooperation with Vietnam, China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, etc., for the invented reason of human rights abuse," the newspaper continued.

"With this shameful development, the American leadership should draw for themselves necessary lessons and immediately stop using the pretext of human rights to oppress and impose their ideas upon others in international affairs."

The article, which ran under the headline "Shameful!", was far more forceful than a Friday statement by Vietnam's Foreign Ministry, which said the ouster from the commission showed that the U.S. should look more closely at human rights conditions within its borders.

But ***** Nhan Dan****'s blistering critique clearly has ratcheted up the war of words between Hanoi and Washington.

Communist Vietnam, which defeated the U.S.-backed Saigon regime to end the Vietnam War, regularly charges Washington with interference in its internal affairs and suggests the superpower spend its efforts curing its own ills first.

Following a steady improvement in relations during Bill Clinton's administration which culminated with a landmark visit to Vietnam by the then-president, ties have appeared to worsen.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom on Monday released its annual report scolding Vietnam for religious repression.

It urged Washington to delay ratification of last year's bilateral trade agreement until Congress approved a resolution calling on Hanoi to make substantial improvement in protection of religious freedom.

**** Nhan Dan *** at the time called the move a "stray and ridiculous act."

Hanoi has also openly accused Washington of backing outside agitators who fomented ethnic minority unrest in the Central Highlands which was followed by a regional crackdown.

The United States recently gave political asylum to 38 minority Vietnamese who had apparently escaped the crackdown by fleeing into Cambodia.

Washington said they would be persecuted if they returned to Vietnam.

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Philippine President Gloria Arroyo holds hands with an unidentified supporter of ousted president Joseph Estrada.