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CHINESE police say they shot and wounded four protesters during unrest in a Tibetan town, the first official admission that lethal weapons were used in a crackdown on anti-government protests.

Citing police sources, the state-run Xinhua news agency said today that police acted in self-defence when they fired on protesters on Sunday in Aba county, an ethnic Tibetan part of the western province of Sichuan.

Tibet authorities also said they had arrested dozens of people involved in the wave of protests that have swept the mountain region and prompted Beijing to pour in troops to crush further unrest.

China`s response to last week`s violence, which it says was orchestrated by the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader the Dalai Lama, has sparked international criticism and clouded preparations for the Beijing Olympics.

Earlier today, in a phone call with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called for China to show restraint toward protesters and resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama.

China says 13 "innocent civilians" were killed in riots last week in Tibet`s capital Lhasa that capped several days of peaceful protests. Exiled Tibetan groups say as many as 100 Tibetans have died.

Mindful of the legacy of its military crackdown on pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989, China says its security forces in Lhasa exercised "maximum restraint" and did not use lethal weapons.

But the Xinhua report makes clear the same did not apply in other parts of western China, where it has been sealing Tibetan areas from foreigners and tightening security.

State television today broadcast pictures of protests in Sichuan as well as Gansu province, both home to Tibetan communities, which showed men on horseback crying out Tibet independence slogans, burning cars and raising the Tibetan flag.

The report said the situation was now calm and showed pictures of barricades and police in riot gear.

In Gansu`s Gannan region, eight police and three government officials were injured in the unrest, it said.

In Kangding, a Tibetan town in Sichuan, roads were crowded with troops who blocked most travel. Notices on walls warned locals not to protest and to stay away from the "Dalai clique".

In Lhasa, the prosecutor`s office said 24 people faced charges of "endangering national security as well as beating, smashing, looting, arson and other grave crimes" in last Friday`s riots, the Tibet Daily reported.

Some outside groups say hundreds of Tibetans may have already been detained, and the China News Service reported Lhasa has broadcast wanted pictures of more suspects.

"The facts of the crimes are clear and the evidence is solid, and they should be severely punished," a Lhasa deputy chief prosecutor, Xie Yanjun, said.

Xinhua reported that so far more than 170 people involved in the riots have given themselves up.

"Most of the people who surrendered themselves were ordinary members of the public who did not understand the true situation," it said.

China`s unyielding response to the unrest has brought demands for a boycott of the opening ceremony for the August 8-24 Games from pro-Tibetan independence groups and some politicians.

The Olympic torch relay starting next week across 19 countries is scheduled to pass through Tibet where it is likely to be dogged by protests.

The Chinese government has resisted international calls for dialogue over the unrest and expressed serious concern that British Prime Minister Gordon Brown plans to meet the Dalai Lama during a visit to Britain in May.

The Dalai Lama, speaking in his exile home in the Indian town of Dharamsala, said he was ready to travel to Beijing to meet Chinese leaders, calling on Tibetans to end the violence.

Beijing has long said it would meet him only if he forsakes claims to Tibet`s independence.
The 72-year-old monk says he just wants greater autonomy for his homeland.

China has struggled to convince the international community that the Nobel Peace Prize winner orchestrated the violence and that its own policies are free from blame.

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