HANOI Vietnam on Tuesday condemned the decision by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to temporarily halt the repatriation of Vietnamese hill tribe refugees from Cambodia.

"This is a regrettable and unfounded decision which does not conform to the real situation," AFP quoted the official Vietnamese army newspaper ****Quan Doi Nhan**** as saying.

It urged THE unhcr to "act in an independent manner" and "not allow itself to be influenced by outside pressure."

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said Vietnam was "ready to hold discussions with the UNHCR and Cambodia to find concrete and efficient ways to do away with obstacles blocking the implementation of the tripartite accord (on refugee repatriation)" signed on January 21.

The UNHCR last week announced it was temporarily halting the repatriation of Vietnamese hill tribe refugees from Cambodia following incidents which have placed in doubt the voluntary nature of the operation.

"We are awaiting clarification from the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments before continuing our work," UNHCR spokesman Kris Janowski told AFP.

The repatriation plan has drawn strong criticism from both Washington and Human Rights Groups who have claimed that the United Nations is violating its own criteria allowing displaced peoples to return home.

Besides temporarily halting the repatriation scheme, the UNHCR has also demanded an end to government visits to the refugee camps in Cambodia.

On Friday, during a visit to the Mondolkiri camp by a Vietnamese government delegation accompanied by Vambodian officials, a policeman beat refugees using an electrical prod, according to the UNHCR.

The previous day, the UNHRC was refused access to hill tribe villages in Vietnam's central highlands where a first batch of 15 refugees returned last week.

More than 1,000 hill tribe refugees remain under UN protection in camps in Cambodia after fleeing an army clampdown on a wave of protests against land confiscation in the central highlands in February last year.