Monday, February 26, 2001; 12:33 PM

WASHINGTON--The United States announced Monday it will sponsor a resolution criticizing China at the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva next month.

Michael Parmly, acting assistant secretary for democracy, human rights and labor, made the announcement at a State Department briefing to introduce the annual U.S. report on human rights worldwide.

"The administration has decided that the United States will sponsor a resolution on China's human rights practices at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva next month," he said.

The decision, which had been widely expected, helped set the tone for a tougher approach of new U.S. President Bush toward the communist state. In recent years U.S. pressure for such a U.N. resolution has been lackluster and symbolic, drawing little backing from other countries. China over the past decade almost always has escaped even a direct vote on the issue.

China has been faulted for its increasingly harsh treatment of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement, widespread use of torture and curbs on the Internet. The annual U.S. human rights report underscored those criticisms and said things had worsened in China during 2000.