Anti-government protests by Buddhist monks erupted in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, from March 10 and five days later anti-Chinese rioting shook the city, killing a policeman and 18 civilians, burnt or hacked to death, authorities have said.

Protests then flared in nearby provinces with large ethnic Tibetan populations, leaving at least several more people dead.

In Sichuan, Gansu and other troubled provinces, troops continued conspicuously patrolling the streets of Tibetan towns, with schools and Buddhist monasteries under tight guard.

Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, has criticised the violence and said he wants talks with China to negotiate autonomy, but not outright independence, for his homeland.

But Beijing is intensifying propaganda telling its citizens and the rest of the world that the Dalai Lama, not failings in Government policy, caused the trouble and that he wants to ruin Beijing's Olympic Games in August.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper, the People's Daily, said on Sunday that the Dalai, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, had never abandoned violence after fleeing China in 1959, following a failed revolt against Beijing.