Two prominent international campaign groups on Monday accused Beijing of failing to meet promises it made on human rights and the environment when it won the bidding to host the 2008 Olympic Games.

At a briefing in Hong Kong, Amnesty International said that the Chinese government’s preoccupation with security and stability in the run-up to the games had contributed to a deterioration, rather than an improvement, in human rights across the country.

“We are concerned a positive legacy from the Beijing games is in danger if urgent measures are not taken,” said Roseann Rife, Amnesty International’s deputy programme director for the Asia-Pacific region.

At the launch of a far more gently-worded report, Greenpeace, the environmental lobby group, said that Beijing had met most of the non-binding environmental commitments it made when it bid to host the games but had missed some of its own targets to improve the city’s air quality and had failed to adequately address serious water shortages.

“The air quality today is not up to what the world will be expecting from an Olympic host city,” Lo Sze-ping, campaign director of Greenpeace China, on Monday said in Beijing.

Beijing OIympic organisers told reporters on Sunday that they had met all their preparatory pledges.

Amnesty International alleged that the Chinese authorities had resorted to increased use of abusive forms of administrative detention, such as “re-education through labour”, which allows police to detain people without trial. It also cited continuing harassment of human rights activists and routine press and internet censorship.

When China won the right to host the games in 2001, Wang Wei, secretary general of the Beijing Olympic bid committee said: “We are ­confident that the games coming to China not only promote our economy but also enhances all social ­conditions, including education, health and human rights.”

Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, at the time said he expected the Olympics would improve China’s human rights record.

Mark Allison, China researcher for Amnesty, said: “Police efforts to clean up Beijing have swept human rights activists out of sight. The police have used the Olympics as a pretext to extend the [re-education through labour] system.”

On the environmental front, Beijing has taken emergency measures to clean up air pollution by forcing factories to halt production, suspending construction work and restricting the number of cars on the roads. However, these moves were “not of much value if impressive environmental achievements are confined to the venues and the duration of the games”, Mr Lo said.

The city and surrounding areas could introduce even more stringent controls on traffic and factories during the games if air quality does not improve, including forcing up to 90 per cent of cars off the road, state media reported on Monday.

Apart from forcing drivers to leave their cars at home every second day from July 20 to September 20, the government has refused to announce details of its pollution control measures during the games and it is unclear how many factories and power plants have been forced to stop production.

Speaking to the Financial Times recently, Mr Rogge said China’s response to pollution concerns was “a work in progress” but officials were doing “everything they can” ahead of the opening ceremony on August 8.