The latest report from China Aid Association, one of the leading persecution agencies in support of Christians in China, has revealed that persecution against Christians in the country worsened during 2007.

The report, which was released on Wednesday just months before the Beijing Olympics this summer, states that the increase in arrests of Christians over the last year points to an overall worsening of the situation for believers in China.

The total number of Christians reporting persecution in 2007 was 788, up 18.5 per cent from that of the year before, while the number of people arrested and detained rose by 6.6 per cent to 693.

While some churches and leaders of the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement were threatened by government authorities, the report says that the unofficial house churches continue to face the toughest crackdown.

Last year 415 house church leaders were arrested, accounting for nearly 60 per cent of all arrests of Christians in China in 2007. According to the China Aid report, house churches were persecuted across 18 provinces and one municipality directly under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Central Government.

There was a slight drop in the number of people sentenced to imprisonment, down 5.9 per cent from 2006 figures to16 prison sentences in 2007.

Christians involved in the publication of Christian material were also targeted, most notably the high profile cases brought against Zhou Heng, who was persecuted for receiving a shipment of Bibles and running Christian publications, despite his operations being legal, and Shi Weihan who was also persecuted for the printing and distribution of Christian material.

Foreign Christians and missionaries also found it more difficult to remain in the country last year. The Chinese Government's "Operation Typhoon No 5" led to more than 100 foreign Christians being arrested, interrogated and expelled from China in 2007.

China Aid said that 2007 had seen the largest persecution operation to expel foreign Christians from the country since the Communist Party drove out all foreign missionaries in the early 1950s.

Not all of the expelled foreign Christians were missionaries in China. A number of them, who were mainly from Western countries and South Korea, had mainstream jobs but were targeted simply for sharing their Christian beliefs or because of their association with local Christians and churches.

The report added that it was becoming more difficult for people to pass news of the persecution of Christians in China beyond the country's borders because the Chinese Government had tightened controls on the passing of information and effectively blocked the internet in the last year.

"2007 has seen a widespread increase of persecution across China. Statistics show that the number of cases of persecution, the number of people persecuted and the number of people arrested and detained has made a dramatic increase since 2006," said China Aid.

"Concern is that in 2009, after the Beijing Olympics, that the persecution on churches and Christians will escalate and the human rights condition will seriously worsen."