Clashes continue between police and Tibetan protesters

Fresh violence has broken out in a troubled Tibetan region of western China, leaving at least one government official seriously injured.

An overseas Tibet activist group said eight people had been killed in the incident in Sichuan province.

It said police opened fire on hundreds of Buddhist monks and lay people who marched on local government offices to demand the release of two monks detained for possessing photographs of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader.

The official Xinhua News Agency did not mention deaths or injuries among protesters, but said a "riot" flared up last night outside government offices in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture high in the mountains along the border with Tibet.

It said the official was "attacked and seriously wounded", and said police were "forced to fire warning shots and put down the violence". No other details were given.

The report indicates continuing unrest in Tibetan areas despite a massive security presence imposed after sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations broke out last month in Tibet's capital Lhasa and neighbouring provinces.

A spokesman for the London-based Free Tibet Campaign said the incident originated at the Tonkhor monastery in Garze with government attempts to enforce a new "patriotic education campaign" - a program of ideological indoctrination blamed for stirring deep resentment among monks.

The campaign demands that monks denounce the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism who fled to India amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

The spokesman said the chief monk, Lobsang Jamyang, refused to allow a government team to enter on Wednesday, but they returned yesterday with a force of about 3,000 paramilitary troops.

Two monks were held after photos of the Dalai Lama were found among their belongings.

Soon afterward the monastery's 370 monks marched on local government headquarters to demand their release, joined by about 400 supporters.

The group left after being told the two monks would be freed but returned after officials reneged. Along the way, they were confronted by troops at a road block, who opened fire on the crowd.

The spokesman provided the names of six of the eight people reportedly killed, who included at least three women and one monk.

Increased "patriotic education" has been ordered as part of the government's response to the riots over Tibetan independence.

Beijing has accused supporters of the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the violence, a charge the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner has repeatedly denied.

Authorities earlier this week said they plan to put rioters on trial and reopen Tibet to foreign tourists by May - a tight timetable that would allow the government to put the issue behind it ahead of the August Beijing Olympics.

Both Tibet and Tibetan communities in three neighbouring provinces where the protests spread, however, remain largely closed to foreigners.