Washington: The United States has urged an "immediate end to the violence" in Lhasa, where 13 people have been killed in Chinese crackdown on monks, while refuting the impression that it was being "soft" on the question of criticising Beijing's human rights record.

At the White House, Press Secretary Dana Perino said the Bush administration had been in touch with the Chinese and impressed upon Beijing the need to exercise restraint in dealing with the protests. "We have urged an immediate end to the violence so that people can get back to living a better life. But we are also -  we are just very concerned of the overall long-term prospects of it," Perino said.

Meanwhile, State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey said, "We are very concerned about the situation in Tibet. We continue to urge restraint on the part of the Chinese government in terms of how it responds to these protesters."  In a briefing, Casey said, "We have consistently called for engagement and dialogue and encouraged the Chinese government to engage in a substantive conversation with the Dalai Lama directly or through representatives so that the issues involving Tibet can be resolved."

On the notion that the US had, in anyway, been soft on China on its human rights track record, he said, "Let me make it as clear as  possible. In the report that was released in 2007, we said that China had a poor record of human rights. In the report that was released in 2008, we said China has a poor record on human rights.  "We aren't pulling any punches, we have been very clear what our concerns are," he said.

Terming the Tibetan issue as the one of "longstanding in China", Casey stressed it was "going to have to be resolved internally between the parties".

Britain urges restraint, warns China over Olympic image

London: Britain urged China to show restraint in Tibet today, while warning that violence there risked tarnishing Beijing's image ahead of this year's Olympic Games. Prime Minister Gordon Brown voiced concern as exiles claimed that hundreds of people may have died in a crackdown against protestors, although this was denied by China. "All of us are concerned about what is happening in Tibet," he told lawmakers in the House of Commons.

"We have made our views known to the Chinese authority. We believe there should be restraint and an end to violence. And we believe there should be a dialogue and that should happen soon, between the different authorities." Meanwhile Foreign Office minister Mark Malloch-Brown, the former deputy head of the UN, said China should be careful not to wreck its image ahead of the Olympics, which he dubbed its "coming out party."

Malloch-Brown, minister for Africa, Asia and the United Nations, warned of the political and commercial fallout if China fails to respect human rights in Tibet. "This is China's coming out party, and they should take great care to do nothing that will wreck that," he told BBC television. China has to "understand the consequences of escalation in terms of the damage to (its) international standing, and the damage to this event, the Olympics, that they've invested so much in, financially but also morally.

"If it wants to avoid a loss of support, political and commercial in the rest of the world, it needs to show that it belongs at the top table of world powers able to deal with its internal problems in a civilised way, respectful of its people's human rights," he said.

Scuffles over Tibet unrest in Australia

Sydney: Protestors demanding an end to repression in Tibet have burned Chinese flags and had minor scuffles with police outside the Chinese consulate in Australia's largest city.

About 100 Tibetan immigrants and supporters held a noisy protest outside the Chinese diplomatic mission in Sydney today, waving Tibetan flags and demanding that Chinese authorities stop killing their countrymen.

About two dozen police have formed a security cordon outside the consulate. One protester charged the line and was pushed back after a brief scuffle. Other demonstrators have burned Chinese flags and chanted anti-China slogans.

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Source : PTI