``We are furious and strongly condemn the detention of Chu Hailan, and demand that the Chinese authorities treat her injuries and make an apology,'' the dissidents said in an open letter, a copy of which was faxed to AFP.

The letter was addressed to the Chinese authorities and signed by 128 dissidents from all over China, but was also marked for the attention of Robinson, in China on a landmark ten-day visit.

Chu Hailan, 36, the wife of jailed labour activist Liu Nianchun, was dragged away and beaten by police on Wednesday after she tried to meet Robinson at the entrance to Beijing's Hilton hotel.

She said plainclothed Public Security Bureau officers kicked and beat her during seven hours of detention in the hotel's security department, before escorting her home.

``My back is hurt. Ican barely walk,'' she told AFP by telephone on returning home. Her mother-in-law said Chu had gone to the hospital early Thursday to have her injuries treated.

Witnesses said Chu was standing quietly outside the hotel's main entrance when uniformed hotel security guards and other men in plainclothes seized her and dragged her through the lobby to a restricted service area.

The plainclothed men also tried to prevent camera crews from filming the incident.

Chu resisted by attempting to lie down and began screaming to draw attention from bystanders and nearby journalists.

She said the police officers accused her of ``disturbing social order'' and threatened to jail her if she again made such an attempt.

Chu had written an open letter to Robinson on Monday to ask her help in obtaining a release for her husband, whose health is worsening in a prison camp.

Robinson is on the first ever visit to China by a UN human rights commissioner, and is seeking to establish working ties between Beijing andinternational human rights organisations.

Her spokesman Jose Diaz said Robinson learned about the incident only afterwards, and would raise it with the foreign ministry.

Robinson flew to Tibet after giving her speech at the Hilton. She will spend Thursday and Friday in the sensitive Himalayan region, where overseas critics accuse China of widespread human rights abuses, including the suppression of Tibet's indigenous Buddhist religion.