Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy is a venomous attack on China, a Chinese newspaper charged Monday.

The Global Times, published by China's ruling Communist party, referred to the title of the album but did not refer to specific lyrics in the songs.

In the article headlined "American band releases album venomously attacking China," the Global Times said the album turns "its spear-point on China."

The newspaper quotes internet users who called the album part of a plot to "grasp and control the world, using democracy as a pawn."

China's Foreign Ministry had no official comment on the album, which has been in the works since 1994.

The title song refers to the outlawed Falun Gong movement and contains the line "if your Great Wall rocks, blame yourself."

Access blocked

The album was released online last week, but China routinely blocks access to websites in the West.

It uses monitors that block messages containing the word democracy and Chinese bloggers were having difficulty writing about the album because of the use of the word in its title.

China's internet censors are reported to have blocked the album's website, chinesedemocracy.com, but some Chinese fans have managed to hear the album on the Guns N' Roses MySpace page.

And the London Telegraph reports the China National Publications Import and Export Group, the state-owned monopoly responsible for importing all music, has told record shops not to order the album.

China allows only a handful of movies and albums from the West into the country every year.

Guns N' Roses was popular in China in the late 1980s and its music was associated with the student movements that emerged before the massacre in Tiananmen Square.

With files from the Associated Press