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BEIJING : One Chinese policeman was killed and several more wounded in a riot in a Tibetan-populated area, state media said on Monday, as pro-independence protests raged on after two weeks of violence.
News of the death came as Tibet's exiled leader Samdhong Rinpoche said that 130 people had been confirmed killed in the Chinese crackdown on the protests, up from a figure of 99 given last week.
And protesters disrupted the lighting ceremony of the Olympic torch in the Greek town of Olympia on Monday, hoping to embarrass the Chinese government in the run-up to this summer's Games.
China's official news agency Xinhua reported that the policeman died in the Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which some see as part of a greater Tibet but which is administratively part of Sichuan Province.
The officer, who was named as Wang Guochan, was killed by a group who attacked armed police with knives at about 4.30pm (0830 GMT), Xinhua said.
"The police were forced to fire warning shots, and dispersed the lawless mobsters," an official was quoted as saying.
There were also unconfirmed reports from a rights group called the Tibet Support Group, which said a source in Garze had told them a monk and a farmer were also killed in the violence while about 10 people were injured.
It also said 200 monks, 200 nuns and about 1,000 farmers were involved in the unrest.
Earlier, authorities had announced that 381 alleged rioters had been rounded up in a Tibetan-populated area of southwest Sichuan.
World governments and sports associations have distanced themselves from calls to boycott the Olympics in response to the crackdown in the Himalayan region, but rights activists clearly intend to target the event.
In Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics and the Games' spiritual home, protests erupted at the traditional lighting of the Olympic flame, which will be carried overland by runners to Beijing for the August opening ceremony.
Ten Tibetans, including a girl whose face was covered in blood red paint, attempted to block a main street away from the ceremony while chanting slogans against Chinese rule.
Later, three French members of the press rights group Reporters Without Borders, led by their president Robert Menard, unfurled a banner during the event and tried to seize Chinese Olympics organiser Liu Qi's microphone.
Security officers quickly dragged them away, and both Greek and Chinese state television cut away from the scene. Later, Menard vowed that his group would dog the torch's progress right up to the Games' August 8 opening.
"We have nothing against the Olympic Games or the athletes. We want to draw attention to the fact that China is the world's biggest prison," he told AFP by telephone from the Greek police station where he was detained.
The Olympic flame is scheduled to pass over Mount Everest in Tibet in early May, and through the capital Lhasa the following month.
Its journey is expected to spark a wave of global protests against Chinese authorities over Tibet and a range of other issues, such as Beijing's record on human rights and religious freedoms.
Xinhua published a commentary on Monday calling for global opposition to such campaigns.
"In the run-up to the Games, the international community, true sports lovers and opponents of violence... must stand fast against any attempt to undermine the Olympics," it said.
Protests broke out two weeks ago in Lhasa to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule, which had begun in 1951 after communist troops moved into the Buddhist region to "liberate" it.
Unrest then spilled into other parts of China with significant ethnic Tibetan populations, including Sichuan province, where China has said that police shot and wounded four people "in self-defence".
Chinese authorities have repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader who fled his homeland after the 1959 uprising, of masterminding the latest unrest but have provided no evidence.
Nevertheless, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice repeated her call for China to hold direct talks with the Dalai Lama.
"We believe that the answer for Tibet is to have a more sustainable policy for the Chinese government," Rice told reporters during a visit to Washington by India's foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"I have spoken with my counterpart about the current situation in which there needs to be restraint, in which violence is not acceptable," Rice said.
"But there also needs to be a day after the current events and that really requires a sustained process of dealing with the problems of Tibet and the grievances of Tibet," she said.
"And we believe that the Dalai Lama can play a very favourable role."
And International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the organisation was keeping an eye on the situation, telling Sky news: "We have expressed our deep concern as to what has happened in Tibet.
"We have also expressed our wish that it should be resolved as soon as possible. Violence is not compatible with the Olympic ideals."
China has refused to talk to the Dalai Lama, despite his public calls for an end to fighting and his insistence he does not seek independence.
The crackdown has been criticised internationally because foreign reporters and other independent monitors have been barred from hotspot areas, but China has shown no sign of buckling to calls for access.
Foreign journalists remain banned from Lhasa and China has kept a tight lid across a huge swathe of land bordering Tibet. - AFP/de
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