Saturday March 10, 2:05 AM

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Falun Gong spiritual group on Friday denied allegations by a Chinese scientist and leading figure in Beijing's fight against the movement that the U.S. Congress gave it millions of dollars in funding.

"Falun Dafa (Gong) has not and is not receiving funds from the U.S. government, as every member of Congress and journalist knows and can independently confirm," Falun Gong said in a statement.

On March 7, Reuters reported that the Beijing Evening News said physicist He Zuoxiu told a meeting of scientists on the sidelines of China's parliament session that Congress had given "tens of millions of dollars" to support Falun Gong.

But Falun Gong said in the statement e-mailed to Reuters,

"No evidence for this blatant fabrication was offered, because none exists."

U.S. officials in Beijing on Wednesday said they had never heard any allegations of American funding for Falun Gong, whose leader Li Hongzhi lives in exile in the United States.

Falun Gong's statement called He's charges a "calculated effort to whip up nationalist sentiment inside China at the expense of foreign relations, paving the way for more forceful measures to be used against Falun Gong practitioners in China."

Tens of thousands of followers have been detained for protesting in Tiananmen Square since Falun Gong was banned.

Human rights groups say thousands of members are in labour camps and more than 100 have died of abuse in police custody. China says it has arrested more than 150 protest organizers but authorities deny allegations of abuse.

It was partly He's criticisms of Falun Gong in an obscure journal that prompted 10,000 protesting members of the group to ring the [party's name omitted]'s compound in Zhongnanhai in central Beijing on April 25, 1999, which led to China's ban of the group.

http://sg.news.yahoo.com/010309/3/jrhl.html