The Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) said the twelve detained in Savannakhet province "belonged to a group of Christian leaders arrested in May 2003 for their belief."

Six other Christians had been released after renouncing their faith, LMHR said. Lao authorities could not be immediately contacted for comment.

"In spite of several denials from the Lao People Democratic Republic (LPDR) authorities, Christians remain insidiously persecuted, in particular in the province of Savannakhet," the LMHR said.

The organization said pressure from the international community forced Vientiane to invent charges to justify the imprisonment of the twelve, who were held for acknowledging "to have changed residence, without authorization."

In June, the exile group said twenty people had been detained in Muong Nong, Savannakhet province, between May 17 and May 27, in what was the third wave of arrests in the area. These reports could not be independently verified.

Human rights groups have long charged the communist regime with harassing and restricting Christians, particularly Protestants, from carrying out their religious activities.

The Lao government, however, has repeatedly insisted that it guarantees the right to freedom of religion and non-religion, and has accused the LMHR of trying to portray it in a bad light to influence US legislators.

A battle is brewing in the US Congress, over a plan to grant normal trade relations (NTR) status to Laos, which opponents claim will reward gross human rights abuses.