Wellington - New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has warned the centre-right government that its plans to crackdown on criminals could breach international human rights agreements, a newspaper reported on Friday.

Officials said proposals to abolish parole for repeat murderers and jail violent offenders for 25 years for a third offence could violate United Nations' conventions and damage the country's international reputation, the New Zealand Herald reported.

The conservative National Party, which campaigned on a clampdown on crime when it won November's general election, introduced tough new laws on sentencing and parole in parliament last month.

Foreign affairs officials warned that the measures are "potentially in violation of New Zealand's obligations not to arbitrarily deprive individuals of their liberty and not to employ cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," the paper said, citing documents obtained under the Official Information Act.

They said a proposal to impose a life sentence with a minimum non- parole period of 25 years for a third violent offence could result in disproportionate sentences that breached human rights agreements signed by New Zealand and most other countries.

David Garrett, a legislator of the hardline ACT party, which supports the government and designed the so-called "three strikes" policy, questioned what countries the officials believed would be offended, the paper reported.

"They shoot people in China for much less and we have just concluded a free trade agreement with them," he said. "And we can't be offside with the Yanks because half their states have three strikes." (dpa)