China tightens grip on Tibet amid threat to Olympic torch

China tightened its grip on Tibet today as it insisted the unrest there would not stop the Olympic torch from being taken to the top of Mount Everest.

Anti-government riots last week in the Tibetan capital Lhasa and a crackdown by communist authorities have led to calls from activist groups to stop the relay from going through the region via the mountain's summit before this summer's games.

"The Tibet leg of the torch relay will proceed as scheduled," said Jiang Xiaoyu, the executive vice president of the Beijing organising committee.

Foreigners were banned from entering ethnic Tibetan areas today and journalists were escorted away and told to get out of one potential trouble spot in next door Sichuan province.

State media reported that more than 100 people had surrendered to police in and around Lhasa.

The government says 16 people were killed and at least 300 buildings burned in the Lhasa rioting. It denies claims by overseas Tibetan groups that 80 people were killed.

Protests and unrest then spread into neighbouring provinces, where more than half of China's 5.4 million Tibetans live.

Chinese officials launched new broadsides at the Dalai Lama today, describing Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader as a "wolf" and "devil".

They have accused the Dalai Lama and his supporters of organising the violent clashes in hopes of sabotaging the Beijing Olympics and promoting Tibetan independence.

In the Indian seat of his government-in-exile, the Dalai Lama asked five groups of Tibetan activists to end a confrontational march to Lhasa, worried they would clash with Chinese troops at the border.

Police said an order was issued on Monday barring foreigners from all Tibetan areas in the province for 10 days. China banned tour groups travelling to Tibet last week, hitting the region's fast-growing tourism industry.

In an echo of tactics applied earlier in Lhasa, police in Aba were driving through town broadcasting calls for protesters to surrender, promising them leniency if they did.

Lhasa was reportedly calm under a tight security presence that moved in over the weekend.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet during the 1959 uprising, has urged his followers to remain peaceful, saying he would resign as head of the Tibetan government-in-exile if violence got out of control.

The winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize has said he favours significant autonomy for Tibet, but not independence.

The protests have focused world attention on China's human rights record ahead of the Olympics, prompting discussion of a possible boycott of the Games' opening ceremony.

Olympic committees in other countries have spoken out against a boycott of the games, but some athletes have voiced concern.

While the crackdown has spurred outrage and protests overseas, most Chinese appeared to back the government, underscoring the effectiveness of its strategy of catering to nationalism by portraying its critics as traitors and separatists.

Insults and threats directed at Tibetans could be found on many online forums, and overseas groups reported unconfirmed attacks by members of the Chinese public on monks and ordinary Tibetans in Chengdu and other cities.

The government has, meanwhile, tightly controlled reporting on the events, seeking to ensure that its version of events is the only one told.