China smoothes over Tibet language row

Chinese officials tried to defuse discontent following days of student protests in ethnically Tibetan areas, saying a plan to teach classes only in Mandarin Chinese was not aimed at wiping out Tibet's native tongue, state media reported today.

Changes will not be forced in areas where "conditions are not ripe", the official Xinhua News Agency cited Wang Yubo, the Qinghai province education department director, as saying.