Tibet's Communist Party chief vowed a trouble-free Olympic torch relay through the region, even as security forces struggled to stamp out flaring violence in a nearby part of Tibetan China.
Chinese security forces have locked down Tibet and neighbouring provinces to quell anti-Chinese protests and riots that started in mid-March.
But as late as Thursday night, rioting hit an overwhelmingly Tibetan area of Sichuan province, leaving eight dead, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington, D.C.-based group backing self-determination for the region.
Police fired on a crowd of locals and Buddhist monks after monks at the Tongkor monastery in Ganzi (Garze) Prefecture were held by police searching for images of the Dalai Lama, the Campaign said on its Web site (www.savetibet.org).
The monastery is home to 350 monks, according to its Web site (www.donggusi.com). Phone calls to the monastery and local government bureaus were not answered.
An earlier report on the riot by China's official Xinhua news agency said an official had been injured but did not mention any deaths. Foreign reporters cannot travel there to test the claims.
But despite the tensions, the hardline Party secretary of Zhang Qingli vowed a "faultless" passage for the Olympic Games torch when it passes through the region in coming weeks.
"Officials and masses from all ethnic groups must raise ethnic solidarity and make the successful passage of the torch through Tibet a heavy and glorious responsibility," Zhang said in a speech carried in the Tibet Daily on Saturday.
He said Lhasa was returning to normal after the unrest began there in mid-March, and once again blamed the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, for inciting more violence.
