This month's anti-government violence in Tibet and neighboring provinces has turned into a public relations disaster for China ahead of the Olympics, which it had been hoping to use to bolster its international image.

The latest blemish was expected later Monday in Greece where a pro-Tibet independence group has vowed to protest at the official lighting of the Olympic torch. About 1,000 police were expected to be on hand to keep demonstrators away from the ceremony. The torch is scheduled to travel through 20 countries before the Beijing Olympics open on Aug. 8.

China plans to take the torch relay through Tibet and to the top of Mount Everest, something that has upset Tibet activist groups.

Students for a Free Tibet spokesman Tenzin Dorjee said he wanted the International Olympic Committee to remove Tibet from the torch route. He said allowing China to carry the torch through Tibet would be "adding insult to 50 years of bloodstained injury."

The Chinese government said through official media Sunday that formerly restive areas were under control and accused the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, of trying to harm China's image ahead of the summer games.

"The Dalai clique is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence," said the People's Daily, the main mouthpiece of the Communist Party.

The Tibetan spiritual leader called the accusations against him "baseless," saying he supported China's hosting of the summer games.

"I always support (that) the Olympics should ... take place in Beijing ... so that more than 1 billion human beings, that means Chinese, they feel proud of it," he said Sunday in New Delhi.

China's reported death toll from the protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa earlier this month is 22. Tibet's exiled government says 99 Tibetans have been killed.

Xinhua said Sunday that 94 people had been injured in four counties and one city in Gansu province in riots on March 15-16. The report also said 19 rioters had surrendered in Gannan, a prefecture in Gansu, but it did not give any details.

On Monday, a woman from the Propaganda Department of the Lhasa Communist Party municipal committee, who refused to give her name, said "there are no updates on the number of arrests or surrenders."

The Jokhang Monastery, Tibet's most sacred shrine and the heart of Lhasa's old city, remained closed said an official from the Director's Office of the temple.

"Although we are still closed at the moment, everything inside our monastery is back to normal. We'll wait another few days to see what happens," said the official, who refused to give his name.

Despite the media restrictions imposed by the Chinese government, some information leaked out. An American backpacker who traveled to Chengdu, the capital of western Sichuan province, said he had seen soldiers or paramilitary troops in Deqen in northwest Yunnan province, which borders Tibet.

"What was an empty parking lot by the library was full of military trucks and people practicing with shields. I saw hundreds of soldiers," said the backpacker, who would give only his first name, Ralpha.

There have been no reported protests in Yunnan.

Monks at the Gedan Song Zan Monastery outside of Zhongdian in northwest Yunnan prayed Sunday for peace and an end to the recent unrest among ethnic Tibetan populations in China. The monks, who characterized themselves as both Tibetan and Chinese, said they felt that the upheaval and riots had helped no one.

The government has insisted that stability has returned to the troubled areas. State broadcaster China Central Television said Sunday that electricity and telecommunications had been restored in Lhasa.

Meanwhile, a group hosting the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany May 14-20 said Sunday that the trip was still scheduled to take place.