BEIJING, May 26 (AFP) - The Chinese government on Wednesday hit out at a US congress report which accused China of stealing US nuclear secrets. A foreign ministry statement said the results of the 11-month US inquiry were "absurd, without basis and laden with ulterior motives." The government accused the United States of seeking to divert public opinion away from the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and insisted that China did not need US nuclear secrets. An investigative panel led by Republican Representative Christopher Cox on Tuesday accused China of stealing secrets to every key US nuclear warhead made since the 1970s to update its own arsenal, and passing data to US foes. "The Cox report taints China and accuses it of having damaged US sovereignty by saying that China stole so-called 'military technology'," said the statement. "These outrageous and sensationalist accusations are totally absurd, without basis and laden with ulterior motives," it added. The ministry said the US report was part of a campaign by "certain anti-Chinese forces in the United States" who were "going against the currents of history by getting stuck in a cold war mentality." It accused the unnamed forces of "feeding off hostility and anti-Chinese prejudices." They are "playing act after act of an anti-Chinese play, taking advantage of the inventions of the Cox report to spread the theory of 'the Chinese threat' to damage the friendly relations" between China and the United States, said the statement. The Chinese government highlighted that the report was released less than three weeks after NATO bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and was an attempt to "divert public opinion." "This clearly shows the evil intentions and the political intrigues of the anti-Chinese US deputies. Their clumsy manipulation is bound to fail," said the government statement. It also insisted that China did not need American technology to develop its own weapons. "History has proved and continues to prove that the Chinese people is capable of defending the security of the country relying on their own strength and intelligence," said the communique, adding that "China has never threatened any other country and never will do."  