BEIJING (Reuters) - China has issued an arrest warrant for the leader of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement and asked for international assistance in bringing him to justice, the official Xinhua news agency said Thursday.

The Ministry of Public Security issued a wanted circular on U.S.-based Li Hongzhi for suspicion of disturbing public order, and sent a notice to Interpol requesting aid in investigations, Xinhua said.

The agency quoted the circular as saying Li ``plotted and organized gatherings, demonstrations and other activities to disturb the public order without applying for permits according to law.''

The group stunned China's rulers when it surrounded Beijing's cloistered Zhongnanhai leadership compound on April 25 in a bold protest against perceived persecution by official media.

Beijing ruled Falun Gong illegal on July 22 after thousands of sect members surrounded government offices in 30 Chinese cities in the wake of a crackdown on sect leaders.

Li says his blend of meditation blended with Buddhism and Chinese mysticism poses no threat to China and the Falun Gong movement is an apolitical group advocating ``truth, benevolence and tolerance.''

But the Communist Party's flagship People's Daily has accused him of attempting to replace the government by portraying himself as a god, and devoted most of Thursday's front page to what it called a ``solemn political thought struggle'' against Li.

Analysts say the political label and denunciations reminiscent of political campaigns in the 1950s and 1960s paves the way for stiff prison sentences for Falun Gong leaders

State media have kept up the propaganda pressure against Li with reports of people driven insane by obsessions with Falun Gong and deaths of practitioners who gave up medical treatment in favor of the sect's meditation exercises.

Xinhua quoted a Ministry of Public Security investigation as saying Falun Gong was responsible for at least 743 deaths around the country.

Li's books rail against science, saying it has created an immoral world on the brink of disaster and saying adherents can acquire supernatural powers.

The People's Daily trumpeted the destruction of 1.55 million Falong Gong publications in the week since the quasi-religious sect was banned and said at least seven major provinces and cities would hold rallies to destroy its promotion materials.

Amid the stream of criticism aimed at Falun Gong, official media have been careful to distinguish between ordinary members, who have been called victims of deception, and the sect's leaders.

Police have rounded up thousands of Falun Gong practitioners -- mostly middle-aged women and laid-off workers - for ''re-education,'' a move that drew criticism from human rights groups.

Li says Falun Gong has about 100 million members, but official estimates put the number at two million. By comparison, the Chinese Communist Party has around 60 million members.