Public security bureau officials in the provincial capital of Hangzhou yesterday freed dissidents Feng Xiaohuang, Wang Peijian and Wang Qiang, the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said in a faxed statement. Police took the three men away from the home of veteran dissident Wang Youcai on Friday evening.

Dissident Wu Gaoxing, who previously spent three years in prison for his role in the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Zhejiang, was the fourth person to be released from Friday's detentions.

Veteran dissidents Wang Donghai, Wang Youcai and Zhu Yufu remain in police custody. Public security bureau police told family members to bring extra clothing for the men.

The news indicates police could be preparing to put the three men on trial ortransfer to a labour camp, the group said. Chinese law allows police to hold dissidents in administrative detention known as `re-education through labour' without a trial for up to three years.

The three men made a failed attempt to register an Opposition political party -- the China Democratic Party -- in Hangzhou on June 25, the same day United States President arrived in the northern city of Xi'an for a nine-day tour of China.

The detentions come just a week after Bill Clinton's departure.